Four Weeks
by Mr Khan
Summary: Hachi makes good on a promise to Soi Fon, and now she has four weeks to win Yoruichi's heart. But is Yoruichi ready to take things seriously, and can Soi overcome her lingering resentment? Now Complete!
1. Prologue

Four Weeks

By Mr Khan

Prologue:

It was a day of heightened alert, or at least that was what she liked to think. It was a favorite superstition of hers: these pristine, blue-skied sunny days where the fluffy clouds floated lazily over the many courtyards and alleys of Seireitei were the days upon which suspicious or dangerous events were most likely to occur. She knew, of course, that that was simply untrue, that bad things were equally likely to happen at any given time and not just on nice days, but it was a superstition she took comfort in. Her little superstition kept her alert for trouble on days that others would spend picnicking or flying kites, or otherwise wasting time.

It was thus that she was alerted to the foreign presence in her territory as she strode back to her barracks from the latest Captains' Meeting. She knew it was a reiatsu she had met before, though she could not place exactly who it belonged to. Clearly someone she had not spent much time with, nor someone she had fought. _No._ She smirked suddenly, her lip curling into a rare glimpse of the haughty arrogance that dwelt within her. _Only one that I have ever fought remains alive and free. _

The fact that it wasn't anyone she had ever fought drastically reduced the possibility that the guest was an enemy, but she would soon ascertain its identity. She resolved against showing any sort of alarm, or even awareness, deciding instead to continue proceeding back to her headquarters just as she was. She arrived eventually, continually puzzling over the identity behind that reiatsu as she approached the gate of her domain.

"Have any outsiders gained entry since I departed?" she asked. She could already tell the answer, of course. Two of her squad still stood at attention outside the gates to the barracks, and they would certainly look differently if they were aware that they had been infiltrated, unless it was an invited guest, but she could not think of anyone that matched this reiatsu.

"No, Captain Soi Fon!" the two black-clad shinigami said in unison. "No-one has gained entry to the compound to our knowledge," one of the guards continued. His voice was level, though she noted that he was avoiding contact with her iron-grey eyes.

"Not to your knowledge, of course," she repeated, stepping towards the gate and pushing it open. _Mental note: whole squad reiatsu-detection drills, start at 0500 hours tomorrow_. She strode confidently through her domain, carefully observing the reactions of her subordinates.

The woman who had once been known as Shaolin Fon but had long since become wrapped up in her code-name of Soi Fon was totally in her element as Captain of the Second Squad and Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukido, seeming regal in her white Haori despite her short stature. Her slight frame should have been an issue for someone of her authority, but with someone of her temperament, it was actually more intimidating for her to be so small, as it added a layer of fear in most people when they realized they could be scared of her despite the fact that they were bigger than her. The rest of her appearance was all about utility; her black hair cut short aside from two braids which were made to be as unobtrusive as possible, bound tightly in two white-cloth braids and weighted down with two golden rings to guarantee that they stayed out of her way. Her iron-grey eyes tied her entire look together, inscrutable and hard as flint, at least as far as most people knew.

Those flinty eyes currently menaced one of her subordinates who currently stood just outside her office, which she determined to be the location of the unknown reiatsu.

"A guest has arrived for you, Captain," the shinigami said. His voice too was level, though like the others he had a hard time holding her gaze.

_Sought an audience with me without checking in with the guards out front. Definitely a rule violation. _She scowled. This was exactly the sort of lax behavior she sought to stamp out. "And who is it?"

"I don't know. He didn't give his name."

Soi Fon's scowl deepened. "So what did he look like?"

"He's a very strange looking man." The shinigami said, not offering anything else.

"Strange," Soi Fon replied. "Very descriptive." _Note Two: Mandatory Sensory Verbalization Exercises, 0800 tomorrow. _"If you had spotted a Hollow roaming through Rukongai, would you describe it as strange?"

"No, Captain!" the subordinate said, bowing smartly. Done with him for now, Soi Fon moved through the shoji door into the anteroom for her office, where she finally met the source of the reiatsu: Hachigen Ushoda. She knew she had felt that reiatsu somewhere, though she hadn't paid too much attention to his presence when she fought alongside him during the war in Fake Karakura Town, as she had been focused on not aging away into dust at the time. She had noted then, and again now, that he exerted a strangely calming reiatsu, vaguely reminiscent of Captain Unohana's. At the same time, however, she could not fault her subordinate for merely describing him as "strange," and leaving it at that. That was the quickest way to sum up the Visored's appearance. His whole body was vaguely egg-shaped, with lightly tanned skin and pink hair with a crossbones pattern on it of all things. He wore a suit from the world of the living that only accentuated his strangeness here in Soul Society; a green suit with a tie.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Captain," the large man said, bowing humbly before the slight woman.

"I take it you did not go in through the front gate?" Soi Fon asked shortly.

"I felt it was prudent," Hachi replied. "We Visoreds are still in limbo in regards to our legal status in the Soul Society, and I knew your squad has the reputation of being strictly legalistic, so I did not wish to cause a stir."

_So sneaking in would cause less of a stir?_ Soi Fon thought, but decided to drop it momentarily. While it was true that Central 46 had not officially revoked the outlaw status of the Visoreds, it was merely a matter of purely categorical legal debate, and not an actual issue of any potential threat they still posed. Indeed, the last Captain's Meeting had largely been about the fact that the Visoreds would soon be extended an offer to come back to the Soul Society if they wished while Central 46 continued to work out the legal bother. Aside from that, this man had proven himself to be a reliable ally to her, so she would allow him space to speak.

"May I ask what brings you here?" she asked. She had almost said "State your purpose," but had resolved to be polite to her the man she had fought alongside.

"I believe I have an outstanding obligation to you," Hachi replied.

"What?" Soi Fon asked. "You owe me something?"

"Yes. I believe the exact pact was "If you used Jakuho Raikoben again, I shall seal away Kisuke Urahara for one month."

Soi Fon started, blinking momentarily. Of all the things she had been anticipating, that was incredibly low on the list. She had all but forgotten about that promise, forged out of pride and subsequently voided in humiliation as her Bankai failed, due either to her fatigue diminishing its power or the overwhelming power of the Espada she fought (likely both). "But…" she finally said, acutely remembering her impotence at the hands of that Espada, "… my Bankai failed."

"I disagree," Hachi replied. "Your Bankai was invaluable. It was through observing how something so powerful could still fail to damage him significantly, combined with how his otherwise incredibly potent power did not affect him, led me to my hypothesis regarding how to destroy him." Here again the large man reminded her of Unohana in the way in which he made her feel better without making her feel like she was being patronized. "Either way," Hachi continued, "I'm a man of my word, so even if your Bankai had failed to produce results completely, I would still meet my end of the bargain."

"So you're really going to seal him away?"

"Of course, starting on a date of your choice, I can use a sealing kido to contain him in a pocket dimension for the requisite time. I take it you are trying to get him out of the way so that you will have time to spend with Yoruichi Shihoin uninterrupted?"

Despite her best efforts to prevent it, Soi Fon blushed at that woman's name. "W-what makes you say that?" she said, turning away from Hachi in a fruitless attempt to save face.

She turned back to Hachi to see that he was smiling kindly at her. "Love is hard to hide," he said simply.

The normally stoic Captain was flabbergasted. "L-l-love… I didn't…" she recovered herself quickly enough. "So are all you Visoreds laughing about me with that man and Yoruichi-sama?" She knew that was a harsh and rude comment, and likely untrue given the kindness that Hachi had showed her thus far, but her emotional barriers had snapped back into place, and her only motive was saving face.

"I don't know how obvious it is to the others," Hachi said, ignoring the rebuke, "but if it is, no-one is making fun of you for it."

Silence reigned as Soi Fon mulled her options. She had originally tossed that offer out there almost as a joke, knowing she had to accept the Visored's help against Barragan, but also wishing to convey that she did not want to accept it. She had not had time to give the implications of the offer any serious thought, but here it was; a chance to get that man, Kisuke Urahara, out of her hair, definitively away from Yoruichi-sama, and then, well… that was the part she had to figure out. She would have a whole month, four weeks, thirty days in which to do something, something definitive that would make it so that Urahara's continued existence could never come between her and Yoruichi-sama again. That was a tall order, but hey, being the Commander of the Onmitsukido and a Captain in the Gotei 13 had to count for something, and she was accounted as a cunning strategist even among her comrades. Yes, she could definitely figure it out, so long as Hachi gave her enough lead-in time…

"Give me ten days," she said, "and I'll come to the World of the Living."

"Ten days…" Hachi said, pausing to figure it out in his head. "How would midnight on the 21st be?"

"Dawn," Soi Fon replied. She had always been a morning person.

"Acceptable, though I don't think Kisuke will like getting up that early."

A predatory smirk emerged on Soi Fon's features. "That's the whole point. Come along," she said, motioning towards the door into her office proper, her mind already beginning to sketch out the necessities for an abduction plan for someone of Urahara's caliber.

"That won't be necessary," Hachi said. "I do not need your input on any of this, I am here simply to finalize the terms of our agreement." He saw the unspoken "but" in Soi Fon's eyes. "I will not need your help sealing Kisuke away. Focus your energies on the one you care about. Good day," he finished, bowing briefly, then turned to leave the anteroom.

_The one I care about…_

~00000000000~

Ten days later, the pre-dawn serenity of Karakura Town was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a Senkaimon. Well, interrupted wasn't the right term, as the birds continued their song in greeting of the coming dawn without being disturbed by the floating shoji, or the appearance of the hardened-looking young woman stepping through. There were no people about at that time of morning in that modestly-sized Japanese town, coincidental nexus of so many spiritual events, and even if people had been around, very few of them would actually be able to see it.

One such person was around, though to him the opening of the Senkaimon was a wholly expected one. The calming, pink-haired man awaited her arrival patiently. "Welcome, Captain Soi Fon," Hachi said, bowing briefly. "Are you prepared?"

"Definitely," Soi Fon replied, that haughty smile back on her face. She had taken full advantage of the ten days, first to put everything in place so that Squad 2 and the Onmitsukido could continue functioning for her four-week leave of absence.

Her four-week leave of absence. There was a concept entirely foreign from Soi Fon's experience, but here she was. Duty was all Soi Fon had, and her duty to the two organizations she led should have overpowered any other concern. A day off would have been too much, let alone four weeks. Duty was all she had, all she had ever had, except for when her obligations had given her a chance to get to know the one to whom she was duty-bound. Then, for a time, she had something other than duty motivating her in her life.

She had not realized it at the time. Back then she believed, or at least had fooled herself into believing, that her devotion to that woman, Yoruichi Shihoin, was merely the fullest fulfillment of her duty as a Fon; to be able to serve at the side of the head of the Shihoin clan, to be anything and everything the clan-head wished of her, would be the one dream of anyone from her family.

That delusion was an easy one to embrace, that she could spend all the time she wished with Yoruichi; training, missions, office work, shunpo-trips all over the Soul Society, walks in the forest, evenings of laughter and gentle teasing, staring into golden eyes…. All spent as part of her duty and nothing more. She had reinforced that delusion after that horrible day 100 years ago, believing that the feelings she had felt for that woman had been bound to her obligation to her. She had forced that emotional energy back into her sense of duty, and had unwittingly (or quite deliberately) twisted herself into a different woman altogether.

Since Yoruichi had returned into her life, however, Soi Fon had been forced to acknowledge the reality of her feelings, the root of her obsession; it was not a servant's due reverence for her mistress, a mere desire to serve her to the best of her ability, it was a more personal connection, it was love. This love had been a part of her, and without it, without her, Soi Fon had changed, and though she was now a powerful and respected figure in Soul Society, she still lacked the happiness she had once had. She wanted that happiness back. No, the ambitious woman wanted more than that happiness back, she wanted something more, and now was her chance to claim it.

Thus Soi Fon justified her four-week leave of absence. She was trying to change her life for the better. Besides, as much as she victimized, put-down, and bullied her Lieutenant, Omaeda was competent enough to follow the detailed four-week plan she had laid out for him, and the Captain Commander knew how to reach her in case of a real emergency.

Soi Fon followed Hachi down the street that she had initially arrived on, until the two finally arrived at the back lot of Urahara's Shop. Kisuke Urahara was there, the man she so resented looking slovenly as ever in his green-and-yellow striped hat, green kimono, and his signature wooden geta on his feet. He indeed looked more slovenly than usual, his unkempt straw-colored hair messier than usual, obscuring his eyes entirely as he yawned broadly.

"Oh," _yaaaawwn,_ "hey Soi Fon," Urahara said, brushing his hair away from his eyes so that he could get a proper look at his guest. "Can we get on with this? I wanna go back to bed."

"As soon as you are both ready," Hachi said.

Soi Fon frowned. She had, she was perfectly unashamed to admit, fantasized about this moment, seeing the despair in Urahara's eyes as he slipped into his pocket-dimension imprisonment. But she should have known that was unrealistic. Kisuke Urahara was smart and above all, powerful, and it would have been next to impossible to take him by surprise into imprisonment. Between him, Yoruichi, Tessai, and those kids he apparently lived with for some reason, it would be impossible to take the Urahara Shop by surprise, and either way if you gave him any time before you actually imprisoned him, he could put his prodigious intellect to work and fight his way free. With her powers, Soi Fon could perhaps kill him outright if she took him by surprise, but she was not a monster. She realized that Hachi was fulfilling his end of the bargain the only way he could; by getting Kisuke Urahara to willingly go along with his one-month imprisonment.

"But why?" Soi Fon asked.

"Eh," Urahara replied, "I could use a month off."

Soi Fon sweat-dropped. "When has your life been anything but "time off?"

"You'd be surprised," Urahara said. "Ururu, Jinta, Yoruichi, and even Tessai are a handful all the time. Even if I have time to do some inventing, I never have time to get my reading done." He reached into the folds of his kimono and withdrew a large, cloth-bound book entitled _Treatises on the Properties of Reishi Particles. _"I've missed out on years of theoretical developments in Soul Society," he said, gesturing with the book, which caused something to fall out of the book's pages; a magazine called _Boin Boin Paradise_ landed on the ground. "Yup," Urahara said, as all three sets of eyes observed the magazine, "no time to get my reading done."

Soi Fon blushed, torn between embarrassment, rage, and even a hint of nostalgia at that man's irrepressible nature. Some things never changed. "Have you told anyone?" she asked.

"Yes and no," Urahara replied. "I told the others that I'm going to help the Visoreds pack all their stuff to move back into the Soul Society. Yoruichi won't see your stinger in this," he added pointedly, looking straight at Soi Fon.

"D-d-don't be ridiculous," Soi Fon said, her tough façade again shaken by the mention of that woman. "I'm just doing this because I hate you."

"Whatever you say," Urahara said, definitely patronizing her. "Can we get on with this? I'm tired, but more importantly, Jinta, Ururu, and Tessai usually wake up early."

Soi Fon must have made a face, and it must have communicated her concern at the unspoken name.

Urahara interpreted Soi Fon's concern, or perhaps deliberately misinterpreted it. "Yeah, it's annoying. Me and Yoruichi usually aren't up 'till noon, while the three of them are charging around the shop."

"You and Yoruichi-sama?" Soi Fon said, her face now looking odd indeed as she flushed deep red, but also contorted with envy and anger.

Urahara laughed. "That look on your face is priceless."

"Laugh now, but you won't be sleeping with Yoruichi-sama when you get back," Soi Fon growled.

Urahara responded by laughing still harder. "And you're serious! Hahahahaha…" his laughter trailed off as he regained his composure. "It isn't like that between me and Yoruichi."

"It… isn't?" Soi Fon said.

"No," Urahara said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought you of all people knew that. Even if Yoruichi never told you we weren't together, she's always going on about how clever you are…" He began to chuckle again, "awfully naïve for a Commander of the Onmitsukido."

Soi Fon continued to glare at him, that mixture of embarrassment and irritation still on her face.

"Geez," Urahara continued. "She and I have been friends for… I dunno, but a long time. She's like an older sister to me, and I'm the last guy who will be standing in the way of the two of you. Hell, I think that'd be kinda hot," he added. She might have been like a sister to him, but that wouldn't stop his yuri fantasies…

"That certainly will make your goal a lot easier," Hachi said helpfully. "Do you still want to seal him away?"

"Certainly," Soi Fon said, all business again. "Whether you're in love with her or not, someone like you doesn't deserve to be around Yoruichi-sama."

"There's the 2nd Division Captain we all know and love," Urahara said.

"Very well," Hachi added, looking over to the eastern horizon. The glow that had been steadily growing was now supplemented by a point of white light just visible over the horizon; the whole scene was bathed in a golden glow and the birds continued their song happily. "Are you prepared, Kisuke?"

"Yup," Urahara replied, picking up his magazine and stuffing it back inside his book. He also grabbed a duffel bag and a folding chair, then took two steps over so that he was standing square in front of Hachi.

The large Visored, former member of the Kido Corps, folded his hands calmly, and began.

_Bakudo Number 83: Chisai Uchuukukan! _

This was a Kido spell Soi Fon knew only by name, though she noted Hachi's expertise at being able to recite just the name of a full 80's-level Bakudo, rather than the whole incantation. She had never before seen it used, as it had a rather obscure use. Four columns of orange light that looked almost like holograms converged suddenly on Kisuke at four different angles, though they all approached him from the front, piercing his torso nearly dead-center, though it did not seem to cause him any pain. A white light emerged in the space between where the four columns pierced his chest, then Soi Fon saw Urahara's body suddenly become distorted for an instant before he, and the things he was holding, collapsed into the point of light along with the four columns, and Kisuke Urahara was gone as surely as if he had never existed.

"It is done," Hachi said. "The spell can only work in an even number of days, however, so the "month" that you have is really twenty-eight days, or four weeks. At dawn, 28 days from now, the pocket dimension that I have just created will collapse, and Kisuke Urahara will return to the World of the Living. Our bargain is complete," he finished. He looked at Soi Fon, whose face seemed somehow shadowed in the morning light. "I wish you luck in your endeavor," he said to her, briefly touching a large hand to her petite shoulder, before turning to walk out of the back lot of the Urahara Shop.

"Thank you, Hachi," Soi Fon finally said, turning and giving him a heartfelt smile that he returned as he turned the corner and walked out of sight.

Soi Fon turned back, staring at the back of the Shop with an odd look on her face, many diverse emotions surging in her. Her face hardened into a smile as one emotion emerged as the dominant one: anticipation. Her plans were laid, and already things were going her way, with an unexpected occurrence in her favor. With her old plans, built around the distinct possibility that Yoruichi-sama was romantically involved with that man, she was now in a stronger position still, as Yoruichi-sama was, to her knowledge, neutrally aligned, meaning it would be far easier to take her. Her heightened confidence played into her anticipation; like most every other mission she had undertaken, she would succeed in this one, she would achieve her goal. But she would not let her good fortune weaken her resolve, or throw her off her timetable. She would do what she had set out to do, and do it in the amount of time she had planned.

She had four weeks.

_Well well, _thought the cat, _a little bee has come out to play._

**Author's Note: **_My first YoruSoi fanfic, or Bleach fanfic altogether. I'm dividing my attention between this and my Metroid fic "Woman of Three Legacies," so the update schedule for one or both might be a little erratic. I hope for this story to be a courtship, but with a bit of drama as Soi Fon and Yoruichi both deal with different emotional issues keeping them apart. Keep tabs on this, and please review. I love reviews, and they help keep me motivated._

_Language Note: "Boin" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for jiggling breasts. "Chisai Uchuukuukan" means "Small Void of Space."_


	2. Days 1 to 5: First Date

Days 1-5: First Date

Wednesday: hump day. Nothing motivated most high-school students like a good Wednesday afternoon, knowing that the worst was out of the way and that they were rounding the corner for the weekend. This was true even for abnormal high-school students like Ichigo Kurosaki. Today Ichigo was on his way home passing the Urahara Shop when he noticed something amiss. Something subtle, a little detail that had been bothering him since he had gone to school Monday: a black cat was sitting in front of the store. Now this was nothing out of the ordinary, except that he had seen that black cat sitting in front of the store, in that exact same spot, starting when he was coming home from school on Monday, then when he was going to and from school on Tuesday, and again both in the morning and afternoon today. Ichigo was finally bothered enough to act on it.

"Hey, Yoruichi," he said, turning off of the sidewalk and approaching the cat that sat at the storefront.

"What?" came a gruff masculine voice from the cat. "Oh," she suddenly realized, "hey Ichigo."

"Have you been sitting in that spot for three days?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"No, of course not," the cat replied. "I mean, I've gone to eat and drink and go to the bathroom."

Ichigo's eyebrows arched still higher. "What are you doing that for?"

"I could answer if you give me a sec to change into my human form," the cat said, her masculine voice sounding very strange with a seductive undertone.

That got rid of Ichigo quickly enough. He blushed a shade to make his orange hair envious. "No, that's fine," he said quickly, stepping backwards towards the sidewalk. "See ya, Yoruichi!" he waved as he zipped away.

The cat chuckled, and returned to its vigil. The truth was that Yoruichi had been maintaining her feline form to take advantage of one particular trait that she lacked but cats possessed: patience. After what she had witnessed on Monday morning, she had found herself full of boundless, nervous energy. She could focus on nothing, and found herself zipping around the city with Shunpo, trying to see what a certain someone was up to. By noon on the first day she had realized that she would drive herself crazy if she kept doing this all the time, but she lacked the patience to do anything else other than obsess about what she knew was coming. Thus she had transformed into a cat, where she found she did have the patience to keep a vigil in front of the shop, so that she could wait for Her to arrive, yet retain her own sanity.

Yoruichi had witnessed Kisuke being sealed away. Kisuke had inadvertently given them away, having to get up so early he had forgotten to repress his reiatsu, whereas Hachi and Soi Fon had reigned in their reiatsu to make them virtually undetectable. Kisuke's wandering reiatsu had drawn Yoruichi's attention and awoken her from her slumber, though she was the only one of the household who was aware of what had really happened.

Her Little Bee had come back for her. Leaving Soi Fon had been Yoruichi's only real regret when she had abandoned Soul Society to help Kisuke get the Visoreds out of Soul Society alive. After their violent reunion during Rukia's aborted execution, she had at least been in contact with Soi Fon, occasionally spending time with her, but it had never felt the same, had never felt like they were honestly spending time together. First off, their contact was rarely one-on-one, as she either had Ichigo and his friends or the Urahara Shop crew hanging around her, or Soi Fon was surrounded by her fellow Captains, especially her fellows in the Shinigami Women's Association. Yoruichi hated to admit it, but she always felt a tinge of jealousy in the few instances she had seen Soi Fon with those other women, wondering if her Little Bee had found in one of them a surrogate for herself. Secondly, Soi Fon seemed more distant than she had before. She was still deferential and easily embarrassed, but she lacked that hint of openness and vulnerability she had possessed 100 years ago. Yoruichi still remembered the hateful things Soi Fon had said upon their reunion, and wondered if she hadn't changed their relationship irrevocably in her departure.

Unlike Soi Fon, Yoruichi labored under no delusions about what she felt for her former subordinate. Yoruichi knew she was attracted to the younger woman, even though she had practically raised her from her teenage years. Something about Soi Fon just drew the noble-born woman to her, a woman who loved and worshipped Yoruichi not for her position or ability, but for who she was as an individual. It was easy for Yoruichi to be completely natural around Soi Fon in a way that she couldn't be even around best friends like Kisuke or Kukaku Shiba. Whether Yoruichi was being mischievous, serious, lazy, playful, or contemplative, Soi Fon loved all parts of her equally, and seemed to just enjoy being with her, without asking anything else of Yoruichi other than her presence. Yoruichi thought that she brought out the best in Soi Fon, helping the tightly-wound girl to mellow out, even if only slightly. Yoruichi loved Soi best when she could see that hint of softness in her, that rarely-seen vulnerability.

And that was what Yoruichi feared; that Soi Fon had lost that vulnerability, had lost that need for Yoruichi, had lost that softness that the noblewoman had once treasured. People changed, of course, and 100 years was a long enough time for any Shinigami to change. Yoruichi feared that loss because she found that she needed the grounding and direction that Soi Fon had given to her life. Yoruichi felt she lacked purpose in the past hundred years, and she had come to realize that her relationship with her former Lieutenant had given her life an extra degree of meaning and comfort. Yoruichi knew she had taken her old relationship with Soi for granted, had failed to realize just how much of the pleasure she had derived from her old life had come in the form of the petite, iron-willed, fully devoted tagalong girl.

Thus Yoruichi had been overjoyed to see Soi Fon come to the World of the Living with the intent of restoring their relationship to where it had been 100 years ago. Soi Fon had indeed changed, as the old Soi would have never taken the initiative in this way, would never have been so bold as to impose anything on her Yoruichi-sama. She had been amused as she observed Soi Fon's continued suspicion of Kisuke, though she had known all along exactly why Soi distrusted that man, it had always been cute to watch her try to compete for her attention.

The only other thing bothering Yoruichi was that Soi Fon was taking it too slow. If Soi wanted to spend one-on-one time together with her again, why didn't she just get on with it? She remained in her cat form, keeping her vigil at the front of the store, senses acutely attuned towards even the slightest hint of reiatsu, or the scent she had memorized; the scent of her Little Bee. Yoruichi would be ready when Soi Fon stopped teasing her and was finally ready for some fun. It was Yoruichi's job to do the teasing, after all.

~~~000000~~~

Soi Fon was, in fact, experiencing one of the most nerve-wracking moments of her life. She had spent the first two days hiding out in Karakura Town, stalking around and gathering some items that she might need later, while she had set up camp in a wooded area outside the town. Her intent in this case was to minimize Yoruichi-sama's suspicions by not appearing in the same day that Urahara disappeared, or the day after he disappeared. It was all a part of her plan that she would wait until just before dinnertime on Wednesday before making the initial contact, to make it seem as though she had just come to spend time with Yoruichi-sama out of the blue.

Of course, it wasn't just "spending time" with Yoruichi-sama, it would be a date. The first of several dates that the rigid woman had meticulously outlined, everything scheduled down to the minute, though obviously she had built in a wide range of room for error, given that Yoruichi-sama was incredibly hard to manage. The course of these dates would progressively make the two of them more intimate until before she knew it, Yoruichi-sama would be firmly (and of course, willingly) bound in a relationship with her.

Soi was currently perched atop an office building of medium height, looking out over the shopping district of Karakura Town, pacing back and forth as she writhed in her own indecision. She was clad in her full Captain's regalia, again wanting to make a casual first impression, as if she had just popped over from her work in the Soul Society. Despite all of her trappings, however, she looked anything but confident, for as determined and motivated as Soi Fon was, taking this first leap was still an agonizing experience. Sealing Urahara away had been an easy thing to do; she hated that guy. This, in Soi's mind, was the real first step, where she had to take a risk, make her investment, and go to see Yoruichi-sama.

But she was completely paralyzed. After all this resolve, all this planning, all her growth over the past hundred years, she was still couldn't do it. She was still just a child, just the tagalong girl who silently worshipped her Yoruichi-sama, but could never hope to approach her. She had not grown at all; she could not to touch Yoruichi in physical combat, and she could not make an emotional connection with her either. For a moment, resentment boiled up in her, thinking of how perfect Yoruichi was, how inaccessible, how she had everything in her life handed to her, how she made it all look so easy.

No, what was she thinking? She was letting her own inadequacies cloud her heart. She loved Yoruichi-sama, and she would do what it took to make that love truly blossom, so that she could be together with her forever. Yoruichi may have had it easy, but Soi Fon had had to work for everything in her life, she would work for this as well, and she would get it.

She turned, made a run at the edge of the rooftop, then stopped suddenly, breathing deeply. "Okay, okay," she said, trying to steady herself. Her palms were sweaty, a phenomenon she never experienced outside of severe combat conditions, and her heart seemed to leap up into her throat. In short, she was in a deplorable condition, a condition that any member of the Onmitsukido would be ashamed to be in, let alone the brigade's commander. She had to master herself. Besides, she had to master herself for more practical purposes. If she showed herself to Yoruichi-sama in this condition, her intent would be beyond obvious, and the whole affair would unravel quickly.

Her resolve was all she had, all she had ever had, and that was enough in this case. Her resolve had led her to serve that woman, her resolve had led her to try to hunt her down, and now her resolve would lead her to win her heart. This was the culmination of the two forces that had driven her life, of her iron resolve and Yoruichi-sama, and between them she found the capacity to master herself. Her breathing slowed and her will solidified. This time she turned towards the edge of the building, dashed towards it, leapt off into the town, and didn't look back.

~~~0000~~~

The cat that had been sitting up stiffly all day suddenly perked up a notch. She felt a hint of reiatsu, not much, but noticeable to the experienced woman. Whatever else she felt for her, she was proud of her Little Bee, as it was commendable that someone with her level of power could sneak around the town almost untraceably, and Yoruichi would not even have noticed the spike had she not been forewarned of Soi Fon's presence.

The subtle shift in power was rapidly moving towards her, meaning that Soi Fon was finally ready to reveal herself. The cat turned and scampered back into the Urahara Shop. It zipped up the stairs, and soon enough Yoruichi Shihoin came back down the steps. She wore what was now her usual attire, her orange silk shirt over a modified variant of her old Onmitsukido uniform.

Soi Fon's reiatsu had vanished entirely again, meaning that she was likely walking normally through the city. Yoruichi decided to be nonchalant anyway, not knowing exactly how close the other was to her, and not wanting Soi Fon to get wind of the fact that she knew. She headed into the kitchen where Tessai was preparing dinner.

"Human again, Miss Yoruichi?" Tessai asked.

"Yup," Yoruichi replied, as she took in the smell of what the apron-clad man was cooking.

"So Miss Soi Fon's on her way?"

"Yup," Yoruichi replied again, taking a seat on the tatami floor before she really took in what he had said. "Wait, what?"

"I said something?" Tessai asked flatly, though he shot Yoruichi a knowing look. The tanned woman glowered, wondering how much of a secret this was any longer.

The doorbell rang and Yoruichi leapt to her feet, betraying her eagerness. She too needed to master herself, to not seem too over-eager to see her old subordinate again.

~~~0000~~~

Soi Fon stood, rooted in the strength of her own glacial calmness, at the shoji in front of the Urahara Shop, waiting. It was only moments after she had reached out and rung the doorbell, but that time had dragged on almost indefinitely, wearing on the strength that she had summoned. Finally She came and opened the door. Soi Fon saw her, but refused to truly see her, to allow her discipline to melt into those warm, golden eyes, knowing that she was here on a mission.

"Oh, Soi Fon!" Yoruichi said, "what brings you here?"

"I wish to speak to you, Yoruichi-sama," Soi Fon said, retaining her veneer of formality.

"Duh," Yoruichi replied, grinning cheekily. "Otherwise you wouldn't be here. Why are you here?"

_Damn her,_ Soi Fon thought. Yoruichi always had a way of unsettling her like this. She would hate her if she weren't so in love with her. "I was thinking," she began instead, "I'm free on Friday, would you like to go do something?"

"Like a date?" Yoruichi said.

_Damn her,_ Soi Fon thought yet again, damning herself was well for good measure as she felt the blood rise in her cheeks, betraying her emotional state. She was trapped, unable to say yes or no, so she simply denied the question. "Would you like to do something?" she repeated.

"Like what?" Yoruichi replied, her grin growing.

"Well, I noticed there's a beautiful park not too far off in this town here," Soi Fon said. "How about an afternoon there?"

"That sounds nice," Yoruichi said. "What time?"

"1400 hours," Soi Fon rattled off, a little too quickly. She wasn't blowing it, but she was making mistakes. They both participated in the farce, neither one properly aware of what the other knew or expected from the whole affair, but both knowing that there was far more going on than one woman asking to spend time out with another.

"Yes ma'am!" Yoruichi said, saluting smartly with a mischievous smile.

Soi Fon blushed again, but saw Yoruichi's smile become more sincere. "Right," Soi Fon said finally. "2:00," she corrected, "at the park's southern gate. See you then," she said, and in a flicker of motion, she was gone.

"S-see you…" Yoruichi said.

~~~000000~~~

Friday dawned, seeing a cat stir on a futon in the Urahara Shop. Once again Yoruichi had taken refuge in her feline form to overcome her anxiety, which in this case had given her a crippling insomnia. With their proclivity to sleep at least 16 hours a day, she had been able to pass the time quickly as a cat, and had been able to find the sleep she had not been able to find. Yoruichi had continuously forced herself to nap, staying awake only when even her feline form felt possessed of too much nervous energy. If even she was this charged up about the idea, she felt bad for her Little Bee, who had always been several orders of magnitude more tightly wound than her, and may very well have become a nervous wreck in the past day and a half.

Finally she awoke at noon on Friday, with two hours to the appointed time. She deliberated for a time over what to wear, wondering if Soi Fon wanted her to dress in World of the Living street-clothes, or if they were going to be spending their day in their spirit bodies. In the end she resolved that they had to be using Gigai, given that Soi had chosen a rather public place in Karakura Town, and they would have little to do if they could not interact with the general populace, and the resourceful Soi had doubtlessly brought a Gigai with her, or otherwise acquired one somehow.

With that in mind Yoruichi eventually settled on something stylish, vaguely casual, and neutral in tone, something that wouldn't make Soi feel awkward as she worked to re-establish their close, quasi-romantic friendship. If Soi wanted to go into "friends with benefits" territory, Yoruichi would be only too happy to oblige, but she doubted that her former subordinate would ever be quite that forward, so she went with something moderate: She settled finally on a white button-down shirt that she wore open, revealing a blue t-shirt underneath. The t-shirt revealed only a hint of cleavage, neither too conservative nor too provocative, and finished the ensemble with a pair of skinny jeans that emphasized the shape of her legs, and yet did not stand out all that much. Dressed and ready, Yoruichi departed with just enough time to arrive at the park at 2:00 on the dot, wanting to surprise Soi Fon with her punctuality.

Soi Fon arrived first anyway, that being a part of her plan. She waited casually at the gate that led into the public park in Karakura Town, blending in with the living human populace in her gigai. She still stood out somewhat, however, with her white-cloth hair braids tipped in their golden rings.

But with all the variety of daily life in the bustling town, Soi Fon's one odd choice did not seem so peculiar, especially given her otherwise normal clothing. She had chosen to go with a yellow blouse and (no doubt driven by her unconscious favoring of that color scheme) loose-fitting black pants.

She watched Yoruichi arrive, walking down the street towards the park. No shunpo, no "sneak up as a cat and surprise you naked," no special entry altogether. Soi Fon didn't know how to interpret that, but hoped it meant that Yoruichi understood Soi's plan to frame this outing as a casual get-together, rather than a proper date (even though it was the first in a series that would, hopefully, lead to serious dating).

"Hey, Soi Fon," Yoruichi greeted as she crossed the street and approached the other woman.

"Hi, Yoruichi-sama," Soi began, caught in the old habit of excessive politeness, even in this casual setting.

"So what's the plan?" Yoruichi said, seemingly eager to get going.

"No particular plan" Soi replied (which was a blatant lie). "Let's just enjoy the day."

Yoruichi saw the honest smile on Soi's face and practically melted from how adorable she was. This was going to be worth the wait.

The day went much the way that Soi Fon had predicted, The first phase of the get-together was predominated by a walk through the park, which was sizable, as the two women caught up. 100 years apart had given them a lot to talk about, things that Yoruichi had been able to learn through her own intelligence-gathering methods, but enjoyed hearing about again straight from Soi Fon. Yoruichi divulged a good deal of what she had done over the last hundred years as well, though avoided referring to Urahara too much. It was the first genuine conversation the two women had had in a long time, punctuated neither by Soi's efforts to sting Yoruichi nor by the intervention of Omaeda, Urahara, the Shinigami Women's Association, Tessai, Kurosaki, or any of the other people that had gotten in the way of their direct interaction since their reunion.

The day was beautiful, as was the park, green foliage overhead that complimented broad, green lawns, as well as crystal-clear ponds scattered about for the public's enjoyment, and the conversation was satisfying above all. Both women had rose-tinted memories of the other, idealizing time they had spent in the past and smudging out minor disagreements that had existed between them (while acknowledging the major issues that had come to light in their reunion fight), and yet now they found in this sunny afternoon the fulfillment of those altered memories.

Soi Fon pulled out her cell phone at one point, intent on checking whether she was on schedule or not. "Whoa," she said audibly, disrupting the flow of conversation.

"What's up?" Yoruichi asked.

"It's already 4:00," Soi Fon said, then realized she was speaking aloud. Yoruichi-sama was not to know of her rigid plan. "I mean, it's amazing how time flies huh?"

"Not too amazing," Yoruichi replied. "I mean, we were apart for so long." An awkward silence hung for a second as the two women looked each other. Soi Fon's heart told her to say something meaningful, to bring her true feelings to the fore, but it was not yet time for that according to her timetable: it was only day 5 of 28.

"You know, so we had a lot to catch up on," Yoruichi said, breaking the silence in the least awkward way possible.

"Right," Soi Fon said, relieved that the tension had been broken. "Do you want to go get some food, Yoruichi-sama?"

"But yeah, I'm pretty hungry," Yoruichi said finally, defusing the awkwardness altogether and getting things back on track neatly enough. "What's to eat around here?"

"You mean you don't know?" Soi Fon asked. "You've lived here for a hundred years."

"Tessai," Yoruichi shot back. "That guy's always cooking something. That and the fact that I can shunpo off to Tokyo in about 12 minutes, I haven't really gotten too close a look at all the restaurants in town, outside of the Shop's neighborhood."

"Well, there's a sukiyaki shop on the other edge of the park," Soi Fon said. She at least had thoroughly searched through all the neighborhoods of Karakura Town.

"Sounds fine," Yoruichi replied.

Soi Fon noted the odd glance the counterman at the sukiyaki shop gave the two women. She knew that Yoruichi's appearance (namely through skin tone) would mark her as a foreigner in the World of the Living in Japan, though Soi did not realize that her hair braids gave her away as a girl obsessed with an antiquated Chinese style of dress. _Lesbian foreigners_, the shopkeeper was probably thinking, or so Soi Fon's doubts led her to believe.

Yoruichi had gotten used to the odd glances so far, remnants of a subtle xenophobia in Japan (that had actually gotten much better over her years there), but she was more bothered by the crumpled-up 1000 Yen bill that Soi handed to the man across the counter, wondering how Soi had procured World of the Living money, but she thought it wise to not inquire about its origin.

The pair of women ate their sukiyaki at a picnic table not far from the shop. They ate in silence, but it was not an awkward silence, as before. The two women seemed to have reached a consensus that they said what needed to be said, and were merely enjoying one another's company without forcing out more conversation. Soi Fon took it as a good sign, that she had effectively broken the ice with Yoruichi and laid a solid foundation for her to worm her way deeper into the Goddess' confidence.

The meal was as far as Soi Fon had planned to take Date Number 1, and therefore it was now time to disengage. The plan had been to leave Yoruichi-sama at the park and retreat back to her hideout and wait until the next day, when she would propose something more, but Soi Fon was feeling confident at this juncture, and resolved to walk Yoruichi-sama home.

"Shall I walk you home, Yoruichi-sama?" Soi Fon said after they had finished their sukiyaki and returned the bowls and utensils to the shop, eliciting another suspicious glare from the shopkeeper.

"Come on," Yoruichi said suddenly. "You got me on a date, drop the –sama already."

Soi Fon blushed scarlet, thrown off by Yoruichi's understanding of the situation. "Yoruichi-san?" she tried tentatively.

Yoruichi sighed, "fine, I'll go with that," she relented. "Anyway, let's go home."

And so they went home, ending the first date. They were no longer silent, but no longer having intimate conversations either. Rather they made small-talk, light commentary on the ins and outs of Karakura Town, Yoruichi trading her long experience for Soi Fon's short-term intensive research. They arrived at the Urahara Shop and stood together at the front door.

"I had fun, Soi-chan," Yoruichi said, putting a teasing emphasis on the honorific.

"I did too, Yoruichi sa-an," Soi Fon replied, catching herself midway through sama and switching over to the less awkwardly formal term.

"Can we do this again?" Yoruichi asked.

"Sure," Soi Fon replied. "I don't have much to do these next few days… I'll see you tomorrow, perhaps?"

"It's a date," Yoruichi said, flashing a mischievous grin as she saw Soi Fon blush again.

Yoruichi then leaned down and kissed Soi on the lips, holding it just long enough that Soi Fon properly realized what was going on. Yoruichi disengaged, flashing another mischievous grin as she left her Little Bee behind, beet-red and totally flabbergasted.

It was going to be so much fun having Soi Fon back!

**Author's Note: **_Yup. School has slammed into me pretty hard, so I composed the bulk of this chapter in computer labs in between classes, and that's part of the reason why this took so long. Mostly a fluffy chapter, though the signs of things to come are there for those who can see them._


	3. Days 6 to 13: The Best Laid Schemes

Days 6-13: The Best-laid Schemes…

Soi Fon awoke that Saturday, basking in a feeling unlike any she had ever felt before. She lay there in the pre-dawn glow that was barely visible through the fabric of the tent that she had made her temporary home in the World of the Living, trying to embrace that feeling. Soft lips, vaguely slick and warm against her own, pressed for one glorious instant before they were gone.

She did not know what to think about what Yoruichi had done. It could be another instant of Yoruichi-sama teasing her, giving her a taste of what she wanted to string her along, or Yoruichi-sama could merely have been kidding, capping off their faux-date with a kiss. On the positive side, it could have meant that Yoruichi-sama, understanding that their time together had indeed been a date, had acknowledged her enjoyment of said date with the kiss.

Soi Fon didn't know, all she did know was that she had enjoyed it. She had decided that the kiss was indeed a good sign, and going with that assumption, it meant that things were going well. If she had managed to worm her way into Yoruichi-sama's good graces after only their first encounter, then she was advancing rapidly. She toyed with the idea of advancing her timetable, of moving more quickly into her plan. But her plan had been carefully laid with all the best caution that the experienced Onmitsukido operative could employ, and she was loath to abandon it. The surprising amount of fun she had had with Yoruichi-sama on their first date guaranteed that following the plan, just as it was, would give her all the more joy.

Soi Fon's reverie was shattered by the arrival of a Hell Butterfly that winged its way through the narrow opening in her tent's flap. Frowning, she sat up on her sleeping bag and extended an arm for the butterfly to alight upon. The butterfly landed, and Soi Fon's frown deepened. _No no no no no, damnit to hell no!_

~0~

Odd disturbances crept into Yoruichi's normally-dreamless sleep. She had slept peacefully for the first night in the week since her Little Bee had come back, but it seemed that she was not allowed even to have this one sleep undisturbed. A discomfort crept into her sleep, one that grew and grew until finally her conscious came to the fore and she slowly opened her eyes. She identified the discomfort immediately as a powerful, overbearing reiatsu just outside. She sat bolt upright on her futon, looking disheveled and sleepy as her brain processed the danger it identified.

Finally she recognized the reiatsu and relaxed, it was Soi Fon, and Soi Fon alone. She trained her senses just to be sure, but no, there were no other reiatsu in the area, aside from the repressed pressure from the sleeping occupants of the Urahara shop. She stood up, wondering what in the hell Soi Fon was doing waking her up this early. She lurched her way to the shop's front door. Upon opening the door she found Soi Fon, clad in her full captain's regalia and looking anxious.

"Yo…" Yoruichi mumbled, still too tired to form more than a monosyllabic greeting. She found Soi Fon standing on the doorstep of the Urahara Shop, clad in her full Captain's regalia and looking very anxious. Yoruichi then understood the source of the disturbance of her sleep fully: Soi Fon had ingeniously applied spiritual pressure to force Yoruichi awake. She wondered what her Little Bee was playing at, however, disturbing her so early in the morning.

"Will you come back with me to the Soul Society, Yoruichi?" Soi Fon said, anxious and earnest.

Yoruichi. No sama, no san, no honorific whatsoever. Something had gone horribly wrong somehow to force Soi Fon away from a lifetime of enforced formality.

"Awfully forward of you to propose moving in together," Yoruichi said, flashing one of her signature toothy grins in spite of Soi's seriousness. "We only went out on one date."

"And I would like to go out on more dates," Soi said. She was being far more to-the-point than she usually was when dealing with her, and the anxiety evident in Soi's voice pained Yoruichi. "So please, come back with me."

Yoruichi knew she really had no choice in this, at least unless she wanted to cut off her relationship with Soi Fon entirely. If Soi had some pressing responsibility back in Soul Society, she at least wanted Yoruichi to be a part of her life in spite of that. Besides, it could be fun to go back to Squad Two for a while.

"Sure," Yoruichi finally said, still too sleepy to sound particularly enthusiastic about it. "Just gimme a minute."

"Thank you very much," Soi Fon replied, dropping to one knee and sounding as though she had had the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders.

Yoruichi turned and left, dressing absentmindedly as she pondered what exactly could have gone wrong, and hoping that nothing too serious had happened just as Soi was beginning to open back up to her. Yoruichi donned her usual outfit: her slim black Onmitsukido outfit with the orange shirt that covered her torso. She returned to the front door, now fully awake, and noticed that Soi Fon already had a senkaimon open in the Urahara Shop's front yard.

"Are you… sure you want to do this?" Soi Fon asked. She sounded so anxious that Yoruichi wanted to hug her then and there.

"Sure," Yoruichi said, making eye contact in a pointed way, prompting an awkward blush from her former subordinate. "It should be fun, right?" Yoruichi continued, trying to lighten the mood. "Let's go."

Soi Fon nodded, and the two women stepped through. They walked through the oppressive darkness of the Precipice World in silence for a time as Yoruichi continued to ponder the mystery of what had driven this sudden change in attitude from her Little Bee.

_Damn you, Omaeda._ That was the constant refrain in Soi Fon's mind. The hell butterfly had arrived and informed her that Omaeda had been incapacitated, and that her squad needed her leadership once again.

Thus Soi Fon's plan had been ruined. She had meticulously established a timetable to fill all the 28 days, culminating in the glory of her victory. But now, well, she just didn't know. She remembered Yoruichi-sama's kiss, as well as Yoruichi agreeing to come back to Soul Society with her so early both had to count for something. At the same time, a deviation from the plan was a deviation. All her mental energies were focused on recalculating the plan, but she could not recalculate completely until she knew the conditions on the ground in Soul Society. Omaeda was probably just laid up with canker sores or heartburn from too much junk food.

Both women paused when they saw a light appear along the path through the Precipice World, far behind them currently but gaining rapidly. The Cleaner had arrived, only recently recovered from when Aizen had annihilated it.

"Race ya," Yoruichi said, looking at Soi Fon and grinning as the sound of the Cleaner grew in intensity.

"You're joking," Soi Fon said. If a hundred years of training had failed to significantly narrow the gap between their speeds, the time separating their reunion from the present certainly wouldn't have made a difference, making any race between them an exercise in futility, or at least a chance for Yoruichi to taunt her.

"C'mon," Yoruichi pouted. "I'll give you a three-second head start."

"Fine," Soi Fon relented, smiling back at her. She had to at least try to be accommodating to Yoruichi-sama if she wanted this to work, and she also knew that any relationship she built with Yoruichi-sama could not be founded upon petty jealousy.

As the light from the Cleaner grew, both women crouched to the ground in a ready position. "Go!" Yoruichi cheered, and Soi Fon shot off like a bolt of lightning.

_One, Two, Three,_ and Yoruichi was after her. Both left the Cleaner well behind them as the bolt of orange pursued the flicker of white that was her Little Bee. The distance between the two flickers decreased as they sped towards the point of white light that was their goal, and away from the growing yellow light that was danger. The orange flicker came alongside the white one when an odd thing occurred. The orange flicker approached the white one, but did not seem to be able to surpass it. The orange flicker struggled, but it seemed that it had given the white flicker a bit too much leeway, and as the two vied for control, too close together for any to see who was ahead, if indeed anyone could, the orange flicker seemed to understand its own inability, and slid into the white one, just as the two flickers met the white light that was their goal.

Yoruichi and Soi Fon flew out of the Seireitei's main Senkaimon together, landing on the paving-stones that surrounded the great gate, hitting hard as they rolled head over heels several times, finally settling in a tangled heap.

Soi Fon realized her leg was caught in between Yoruichi's knees, and felt something soft yet firm pressing one of her hands into the pavement. She gasped aloud, rolling over quickly and disentangling herself from her Yoruichi-sama. "You…" she began, blushing fiercely. "You cheated!"

"Oh yeah?" Yoruichi said, smirking at her from her position on the ground. "Prove it."

Soi Fon smiled, though she was not sure what to make of any of it.

"Anyway, come on," Yoruichi said. "Let's go find out what happened to your Lieutenant."

"Wha-? How did you…?" Soi Fon began, but she stopped herself. This was Yoruichi-sama she was talking about, after all. "Please, Yoruichi-sama, you don't need to trouble yourself," she said. "I want you to enjoy yourself while you're here."

"And what if I would enjoy helping you?" Yoruichi asked, "Did you consider that?"

This time Soi's response was barely perceptible. She neither stammered nor blushed, which showed that she was getting used to being with her Yoruichi-sama, and it was only the sudden, brief widening of her eyes that belied her shock at Yoruichi's concern for her problems.

"If that is your desire," she said finally, as if she did not care about Yoruichi's response one way or another. "At least working with you again will be better than _that_ man…"

Yoruichi noted the tone of Soi's voice. She used the same note of derision for her Lieutenant as she did for Urahara, which was rather scary.

~~~000000~~~

Soi Fon returned to the Squad Two barracks with Yoruichi in tow, and much like that fateful event 16 days ago, she sensed a foreign reiatsu in her domain, though this time it was someone she remembered. Arriving at her office, she confirmed her suspicions.

"My my," said Retsu Unohana, who along with her Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu occupied the anteroom to Soi's office, "it's very nostalgic seeing the two of you together again."

Yoruichi chuckled a little, but Soi Fon just glared. "Explain your presence," Soi said curtly, not wishing to be overtly rude to the woman who was her senior and much more powerful than her.

"I came to inform you on the condition of your Lieutenant," Unohana replied, choosing to ignore Soi's curtness.

"I am curious to know what excuse he came up with to let him shirk his responsibility."

"Actually, he was simply trying to fulfill his responsibility," Unohana replied, opening her eyes in a way that was both perfectly innocent and subtly menacing. "Omaeda-san was following his instructions to the letter when he was incapacitated," Unohana said. "You left him clear instructions to take Squad Two to the Zone Three training ground to the southwest for group exercises, which he did."

"And then what happened?" Soi asked.

"Kenny beat up Fatty!" came a voice, as Soi Fon and Yoruichi observed Yachiru Kusajishi practically skipping into the office. "Ken-chan wanted to chop up the trees in the Zone Three ground, but Fatty said that Fonfon told him he had to train there that day. Fatty said "I'd rather get beat up by Kenny than Fonfon!" So Kenny beat him up!"

Yachiru stopped and stared a moment at Yoruichi, who was looking down at her with a suppressed smile. "Hi Boobies, have you come back to see Fonfon?"

Soi Fon visibly cringed, having never heard Yoruichi-sama be referred to in such a derogatory manner since she had never heard Yachiru directly address her before, but Yoruichi merely chuckled. "Yeah, I'll probably be here a while."

"Yay, Boobies should join the Shinigami Women's Association! We have so much fun, and do fun things like one time we had Nana-chan and Doll-chan go take photos of-"

"Getting back to the point," Soi interjected forcefully. "What became of my Lieutenant?"

"As Kusajishi-san succinctly put it, Zaraki-san did significant damage to Omaeda-san, but Omaeda-san is stable, and should be ready to return to service in a few weeks," Unohana said.

"And was Zaraki disciplined for any of this?" Soi Fon asked. "Of course not," she said, without waiting for a reply. Zaraki was like a black hole for discipline in that not only did he lack any himself, he seemed to suck discipline out of the environment around him, infecting that whole squad of his and even somehow managing to avoid any sort of oversight or accountability from Captain Commander Yamamoto. "Oh well," she finally said. "Thank you, Captain Unohana, Lieutenant Kotetsu."

"You are perfectly welcome, Soi Fon-san." Unohana bowed, but as she did so she opened her eyes slightly, casting a brief, knowing gaze upon Yoruichi. "Come along, Kusajishi-san," she added, well aware that the little girl was unwelcome in Soi Fon's office at this time.

Yachiru pouted, clearly eager to spend some time with Yoruichi as well, but allowed herself to be led along by Unohana out of the office.

"I guess I can't really blame Omaeda for that," Soi Fon said, "damn that Zaraki," she cursed.

"So you left behind a detailed plan for your Lieutenant to follow while you were away," Yoruichi said, "that part I get. But exactly how long had you planned to be with me in the World of the Living?" Yoruichi still didn't want to let on that she knew about Kisuke's temporary imprisonment, rather preferring to tease Soi a bit more.

"N-n-not that much longer. I just had a day or two off…" Soi Fon said, suddenly sounding meek.

"Really? And what would Omaeda say if I asked him?"

Again Soi resolved to ignore the question. "I'll have to get the squad over to another training ground, and find a suitable replacement for Zone Three, if Zaraki actually did cut down a lot of the trees over there. Those exercises are important."

"A replacement?" Yoruichi asked. "It's not like you ever settle for second-best, Soi Fon."

"So? Our, uh…" she caught herself midway through the statement "my squad needs to train, and Zone Three would no longer be suitable."

"Right, but it's Zaraki's fault that Squad 2 was inconvenienced," Yoruichi said, now smiling mischievously. "The Soi Fon I know would want to get back at him."

"I've long since given up trying to get the Captain Commander to discipline him," Soi Fon said. "All we can do is move on."

It wasn't right at all seeing her Little Bee like this. Yoruichi had not had an opportunity to observe Soi's decision making, her leadership. She knew Soi was dedicated to the rules, but she also knew she was more dedicated to her squad, and thought that Soi's captaincy over Squad 2 could use the Yoruichi Shihoin touch. After all, Yoruichi had said she was here to help her.

"What kind of exercises were they?" Yoruichi asked, the germ of an idea beginning to form in her mind.

"Standard stealth-ops," Soi Fon replied. "Set the Squad into teams, let them set themselves up in the terrain and then try to capture each other's positions or neutralize the other team."

"Those were always fun, especially when I got to play," Yoruichi said. "It was fun to disguise myself and single-handedly capture one or both of the teams."

"Yes, I remember that." She indeed remembered being caught by Yoruichi, held in a firm embrace, if only for a moment to guarantee that she was incapacitated, but she had no time to reminisce. "I adopted that as well, in that I'll occasionally join in to try to teach my subordinates what to do if someone overwhelmingly more skilled than they are appears on a mission."

"Well, couldn't we give those skills a practical application?" Yoruichi said, her mischievous smile now grown to an ear-to-ear grin with a somewhat manic glint in her eye.

~~~000000~~~

Soi Fon didn't know why she had agreed to do this. Scratch that, she knew exactly why she had agreed to do this; it was because of Her. If Kenpachi Zaraki was toxic to discipline, Yoruichi was more dangerous still; a foe of discipline who had the keys to Soi Fon's heart and who could work past her defenses in a way that no other could possibly hope to do. Though Yoruichi's influence was less externally corrosive, her sway over Soi Fon got her to get the Captain of Squad 2 to agree to this reckless, flagrantly against-the-rules excursion.

With a flicker of motion, the woman that currently occupied her thoughts (as if any other had ever occupied them) appeared next to her. The two of them crouched in the shadowed lee of one of the many walls that separated seireitei into courtyards and alleyways. Around the corner, down a short alley, was the main gate for the Squad 11 barracks.

"So?" Soi asked.

"There's a blind-spot in their guard patrols that's as plain as day," Yoruichi said, a confident smirk on her face.

"Just explain what the hell we're supposed to achieve with this," Soi Fon said, motioning towards a large pile of full rolls of toilet paper, currently warded by a Squad Two shinigami and an Onmitsukido operative. Despite the great many rolls of toilet paper amassed by the two women, there were just as many that had been put in position at other points around the perimeter of the Squad 11 grounds, but as learned as she was in the art of black ops, Soi Fon had no idea what Yoruichi-sama was driving at with this plan. It was, however, impressive that the two women had managed to get Squad Two to gather all these materials and put them in position, since it had been only this morning when Soi Fon and Yoruichi had arrived in Soul Society to begin with.

"Something I picked up in the World of the Living, in the United States. Teenagers there seem to love doing this as a harmless prank, and I figured it was perfect for this situation."

"So with the toilet paper we… what exactly?" the Squad Two shinigami asked, immediately cringing as he realized he had spoken out of turn in his Captain's presence. But to his lasting surprise, Soi Fon simply nodded, agreeing with his question.

"You just throw it on stuff," Yoruichi said. "Trees, houses, whatever. But of course, Squad Two and the Onmitsukido could be fast enough to throw it on people, too."

The shinigami smiled hopefully, liking the idea of pulling one over on the Squad 11 shinigami.

"How juvenile," Soi said.

"It'll build morale, it'll be good training, plus it'll be fun," Yoruichi said, throwing an arm around Soi's shoulders. "Squad 11 will have no idea what hit them." "But why haven't you ever come up with an idea like this before?" Soi Fon asked.

"No inspiration," Yoruichi replied. "I didn't know about TP-ing until I went to the World of the Living."

"No, I mean why haven't you ever ordered such a juvenile, retaliatory strike on another squad like this?"

"Because no-one ever had the guts to cross me," she said, smiling at Soi Fon. "And it seemed like no-one ever had the guts to cross you like that either. We're getting revenge for Omaeda."

"As if he deserves it," Soi Fon snorted.

"Like I said, good for squad morale, good for training, and it'll be fun. Everyone's in position, right?"

"They were when I did my rounds, Yoruichi-s-" Soi Fon stopped herself, not wanting to appear subordinate to Yoruichi in front of shinigami who were now under her command.

"Good, then let's go," Yoruichi said.

_I should really be the one in command here._ Soi Fon thought. _Why am I letting her do this? Am I still so overwhelmed by her that I cannot assert myself? Will she subvert my authority over my squad?_ But she suppressed these thoughts, at the moment more grateful to be on a mission, even such a pointless and illegal mission as this, with her Yoruichi-sama to harbor too much ill-will towards her. She nodded, smiling at Yoruichi who smiled in turn, a smile that was sincere for an instant before it became mischievous, and then the two women, as well as the attendant Squad Two Shinigami and Onmitsukido operative, grabbed some toilet paper rolls and went into action.

~~~000000~~~

Kenpachi Zaraki was normally a heavy sleeper, as well as a prolific taker of naps. If there wasn't any action, or the threats of Old Man Yamamoto forcing him to do his clerical duties as a Captain (paperwork and the like), then he just liked to sleep away the time between rousing bouts of action. He had a sixth sense for conflict, however, and thus his eye snapped open as soon as he heard the muted_ thumps_ on the roof of his quarters. A subtle sound that might not disturb even a light sleeper, but because of what the sound implied, it drew him to alertness in an instant.

He stepped out of his sleeping quarters, dressed and ready for action with his jagged-edged zanpakuto drawn.

"Kenny!" Yachiru yelled, rushing out from her own bedroom. "There're mummies outside!" Her voice sounded oddly between fear and excitement.

"Huh? Mummies?" he asked. "Are you sure?"

"Super positive!" she said, "c'mon, c'mon!" She leapt up on his shoulder, slapping him on the back to make him go.

Zaraki started when he saw what was outside when he found a few human-shaped figures clad all in what looked like white bandages wandering around out in front of his quarters, all muttering something inaudible. "They don't look that strong…" Zaraki said in disappointment. "Eh, better than going back to sleep," he said, pointing his sword at one of them. He emitted a strong pulse of spiritual pressure, and the "bandages" flew off the nearest "mummy," revealing a very shell-shocked member of Squad 11.

"He's not a mummy!" Yachiru declared, sounding quite disappointed.

"No, but maybe he still wants to fight," Zaraki said, a manic look in his visible eye.

"No, Captain don't!" the shinigami pleaded.

"So if you're not here to fight then why the hell are you wandering around dressed up like a mummy? What's going on here?"

"I'm part of the night-watch tonight, and I was making my rounds when some of this suddenly tied up my torso!" The shinigami held up a strand of toilet paper, offering it up to his Captain and Lieutenant.

"Huh? Toilet paper?" Zaraki grunted in confusion.

"Somehow it wrapped around me," the shinigami said, calmer now that he was fairly certain that Zaraki wasn't going to decide he was an enemy. "Then I was completely covered in it. But it's not just me…" he said, pointing around to some of the other "mummies" wandering around. Zaraki glanced at them, then looked at the reams of toilet paper draped over the roof of his sleeping quarters.

"So we're under attack then…" he said. "All right! So where are these sons of bitches? Let's get this party started!"

There was a barely perceptible flicker, as well as the telltale sound of shunpo, and suddenly a ream of toilet paper was wrapped around Kenpachi's torso. Zaraki grunted, easily tearing it off. In response, two reams surrounded him at varying heights as Yachiru jumped off his shoulder.

"Alright, enough kiddy games!" Zaraki yelled as he shrugged off the toilet paper. "C'mon out and fight me!"

More flickers were seen and shunpo sounds heard in response, then Kenpachi found himself mummified in a few very skillfully thrown rolls of toilet paper. After Kenpachi was surrounded, a veritable hail of toilet paper flew from all quarters, falling all over the Squad 11 barracks like a gentle rain.

"Damnit!" Kenpachi Zaraki roared, a surge of reiatsu shredding the toilet paper off his body. "Fight me!"

But the toilet paper assault had ceased, and there was no-one to be found.

~0~

_Amazing!_

_Hilarious!_

_So this is the legendary Yoruichi Shihoin in action._

These rumors sped throughout Squad Two the following morning, spread quickly even through the ranks of the most disciplined squad, and sped through their partner organization, the Onmitsukido, equally quickly. The spirits of the squad had been lifted in such a way as they had not been for quite some time. The shinigami that had joined in the past hundred years (who were the majority of the squad and the Onmitsukido overall) found the accounts of Yoruichi, whom they only knew as a legend, to be especially compelling.

Yoruichi-sama affects everyone like that, Soi Fon thought. She was inspiring, a natural leader, and just had a way of getting the best out of her subordinates. With one calculated prank, she had won over the affections of her squad in a way that Soi herself had not been able to in a century.

But Soi's jealousy was mediated by her own awe at seeing Yoruichi-sama in action again, though this was not to undersell her own role in the raid. It had taken tremendous skill to be able to accurately throw the toilet paper in mid-shunpo to achieve the "mummification" of Squad 11 targets, and only Soi Fon aside from Yoruichi had been able to achieve it. The rest had just been other members of the squad making targeted distribution of the paper rolls around the Squad 11 barracks. Soi Fon however did not appreciate that she had served the same role as Yoruichi in the event, as she was instead overcome by the same awe as her subordinates, the awe that also negated her jealousy.

The two women wandered around the barracks that housed both Squad 2 and most of the Onmitsukido as the day after the raid dawned, observing the heightened spirits of Soi's subordinates. It was hard to observe, as the shinigami were all highly trained in the art of emotional restraint, but Soi Fon and Yoruichi were all the more experienced in reading people, and could easily see the positive impact on morale.

"See?" Yoruichi said, smiling at Soi Fon "what'd I tell you?"

"You were right as usual, Yoruichi-sama," Soi Fon said distantly.

Yoruichi held out an arm, stopping Soi Fon in her tracks. "What did I tell you about the –sama?" she asked. "We're going out, so stop it."

"Y-Yoruichi!" Soi Fon gasped, blushing fiercely. They were well within earshot of several shinigami. "You were right," she said more softly. "It has been very inspirational to the squad. You're as good a leader as you ever were."

"Oh Soi Fon," Yoruichi said, putting an arm around Soi's shoulders. "I'm no leader. All my life amounts to me trying to do as little leading as possible. Why do you think I kept a bodyguard around when i was surrounded by higher-ranked Shinigami than you? I knew the squad needed someone responsible and dedicated to help run it." Soi Fon looked back at her breathlessly. "I just come up with some good ideas occasionally," she added, sticking her tongue out at Soi Fon cheekily.

"More than just good ideas, Yoruichi," Soi Fon replied. "It's great having you back."

"It's good to be back with you," Yoruichi replied. She then yawned broadly. "But damn am I tired." That was no wonder, since the noted night-owl had been awoken at dawn now some 24 hours ago. Staying awake that long was less daunting to Soi Fon, who had less value for sleep, so she could resume her duties as Captain.

"You know where the guest quarters are, right Yoruichi?"

"Totally. I need a long sleep."

~0~

Life with Yoruichi back at Squad 2 soon settled into a harmonious rhythm. Yoruichi's proclivity to sleep in meant that Soi Fon had plenty of time to do her duties as a Captain before she woke up, and then they still had the whole afternoon for private sparring sessions or group exercises with the squad, and then spent the evenings in intimate privacy, much like in the days when they had been bodyguard and mistress long ago. They sought intimacy in the evenings because of Soi Fon's wish that they not reveal her romantic efforts to the others in Soul Society, and especially her contemporaries in the Gotei 13.

Yoruichi loved all of it. She was finding the happiness that she had lost when she had been forced to flee a hundred years ago, a life free of responsibility (though her life in Karakura Town had been equally free of responsibility), but more importantly a life with her Little Bee. It was exactly what she had wanted when Soi Fon had returned for her; it was the life she had left before, but with even less responsibility on her part because Soi was the Captain now and not her, and her Little Bee had shown interest in becoming more involved with her romantically. She had been receptive to the kiss, and although Soi Fon had not made any other romantic advances since, Yoruichi was confident that Soi was just waiting until closer to the end of the four weeks, and Yoruichi was willing to be patient.

Though she was not immune to distraction.

"Hey, Yoruichi! When did you get back?"

"Last Saturday, Kukaku. How's it been?"

"Eh," Kukaku Shiba said, gesturing nonchalantly with her one good arm. "Same old same old. "You up for a drink? Or a dozen drinks?" she asked, smiling mischievously.

"Sure," Yoruichi said without a moment's hesitation. Her going out drinking with Kukaku had been a fun part of her old life as well, and alcohol was one joy in life that Soi Fon would never bring to Yoruichi, and so she left the Squad Two barracks and Soi Fon behind, but only for a time.

The next day, while Yoruichi was still sleeping off her hangover back at the Shiba mansion in the Rukon district, Soi Fon returned from her morning duties. As she neared the guest quarters, she noted the missing sensation, the lack of any reiatsu.

For an instant, she was struck by a pang of that old hurt. That terrible memory of that day a hundred years ago when she had returned to the Squad Two barracks.

Her Yoruichi-sama had left her.

**Author's Note:** _Tackled this one quicker, though it ended up being about 1000 words longer than the first two. I had most of the plot for the story worked out in the beginning, except the specifics of this chapter, and it ended up pretty well for all that. Hardest part was coming up with a way for Omaeda to get taken out without him looking stupid, since I figured Omaeda screwing up is beyond cliché by now :P. _

_The more reviews I get, the more motivated I'll be. I'm not one of those "I need 10 reviews before the next chapter" kind of authors (indeed I dislike those authors), but it is psychologically helpful as a source of motivation._


	4. Days 14 to 18: Things Fall Apart

Days 14-18: Things Fall Apart

Yoruichi was being quiet. It wasn't because she was on a mission, it wasn't because she was sleeping, and it wasn't because she was still hung over (her hangover had dissipated by the mid-afternoon yesterday), but because she was thinking. Something had been off with Soi Fon since Yoruichi had returned to Squad Two a few hours later than she would otherwise have woken up.

~0~

Once upon a time, coming back at strange hours, hung-over or just recovered from a hangover would have earned a reproach from her Little Bee, a gentle admonishment about how what Yoruichi was doing was setting a bad example for the Squad, but Yoruichi's habits had never seemed to really offend Soi Fon.

This time, however, Soi Fon had just given her a smile, a fake smile if Yoruichi had ever seen one, and they had gone about their day as if nothing happened. But Soi Fon's attempts to make it seem like she had not been bothered made it all the more apparent that she was more bothered than she had ever been. It was hard to tell, of course, because Soi Fon was an expert at hiding her true feelings, but Yoruichi in turn was an expert on knowing Soi Fon. Or at least she thought she was.

She had thought she could impress Soi Fon by waking up early the following day, the 14th since Kisuke had been sealed away. She woke up early and, after breakfast, sought out Soi Fon. Knowing that Soi used the time when Yoruichi was usually sleeping in to carry out her duties as Captain (which was itself a statement on how long Yoruichi usually slept in), Yoruichi narrowed down Soi's location quickly, even without having to try to detect her reiatsu. Soi Fon was not in her office, so she had to be out doing some sort of drill with one or both of the groups she oversaw.

She found Soi Fon commanding a drill with the Onmitsukido, standing authoritatively on a dais at the far end of one of the training courtyards in front of a large number of shinigami clad in black bodysuits. The shinigami had all paired off and were practicing grappling techniques with one another, applying jujitsu techniques with great skill.

Although not with enough skill to satisfy Soi Fon's strict standards. "Not nearly sufficient," she said. She did not shout because she did not need to; the Onmitsukido were not the kind of soldiers that needed shouting at, and the disappointment bordering on contempt in Soi's cold voice was all the negative reinforcement anyone could need. That was part of the contradiction that made Soi Fon so fascinating; so cold in public and so warm in private. She too was wearing only the Onmitsukido uniform, looking positively small and frail without her Captain's haori. Her Little Bee was so cute, but looks were quite deceiving.

"You know the skills, but that just proves you know how to memorize things. You spar with other people who have memorized the moves and do you know what you get? Choreography," Soi Fon said, "Dancing!" she added with a shout. "If all you know are the moves, then you're all a bunch of dancers, and is that what being in the Onmitsukido is about?"

"No ma'am!" the black-clad shinigami replied in unison.

"Right," she said, lowering her voice again, yet somehow still managing to project over the large courtyard. "So who wants an object lesson in jujitsu?"

The crowd was silent and unresponsive. The faces of her troops were concealed by their uniforms, and they were trained not to reveal emotion anyway, but the lack of takers was telling all the same.

"I'll give it a shot," Yoruichi said from the back of the courtyard, raising her hand and smiling up at Soi Fon.

She saw Soi Fon hesitate for a moment, then responded. "Of course," she said in an odd, neutral tone, "I mean, of course. This will be an ideal demonstration."

_Hell yeah it will,_ Yoruichi thought to herself, though she did not say it. It had been a long time indeed since she had practiced grappling with her Little Bee. Yoruichi was fortunate to have arrived when she did. In a flash she was through the crowd and up next to Soi Fon.

"C'mon," Yoruichi said, grinning provocatively.

"Pay attention, everyone," Soi replied curtly, spreading her legs and angling her body slightly away from Yoruichi.

The two women stared at one another momentarily, Yoruichi smiling and Soi Fon looking serious and impassive. Yoruichi wondered in that hanging instant whether Soi's seriousness was for the benefit of her squad or due to whatever grievance Soi had that had caused their relationship to chill as it had. The moment ended, and the two women engaged at a speed faster than the eye could track. For a fractured moment the two women vied for control, then with a _thump_ they were both on the floor of the raised dais. Yoruichi had one arm firmly locked around Soi's torso, pinning Soi Fon's left arm to her side while Yoruichi's other hand clasped Soi's to keep her right arm occupied. Yoruichi's thighs surrounded Soi's narrow hips, the powerful scissor of the larger woman's legs keeping Soi Fon perfectly trapped.

Soi struggled a little, blushing fiercely as she felt the warmth from her Yoruichi-sama's body radiate into her own, though she knew she was well and truly pinned and had had the tables turned on her; her supposed showing of jujitsu prowess turned into a practical lesson on how there was always someone better than you out there. This was not what she had planned at all, but then again nothing ever went as she planned when Yoruichi-sama came into the picture. With her left arm, Soi Fon tapped out, signaling that once again she was submitting to Yoruichi-sama, and the other woman, with that cavalier, dominant grin on her face that Soi Fon was coming to resent more and more, let her go.

"Yes, well…" Soi Fon said slowly, hating that she had been made to look like a bumbling schoolgirl in front of her squad, resenting the fact that Yoruichi had interfered with her practice, and had once gain made it look like Yoruichi was the one in command, though it was hard to deny that those moments between Yoruichi-sama's legs had been heavenly. "It is often very effective to take your opponent by surprise like that. Overwhelm them quickly enough and you will secure their submission with minimal struggle. Now we'll try again," Soi Fon said. She sounded authoritative, but internally she was uncertain. "Watch carefully."

The two women squared off once again, but again it was barely an instant before _thump_, Soi Fon was back on the floor, pinned in another compromising position. But this time she broke the hold and stood back up. What followed was a series of movements that could only be perceived as stop-motion animation, still frames being the only thing the eye could track from the two high-speed women. One could see them in their ready positions, see Soi Fon with Yoruichi's arm in her grip, see Yoruichi snaring Soi's leg with her own and sending her to the floor. See Soi struggling in Yoruichi's grip on the floor. Soi Fon tried to unseat Yoruichi, but was unable, but neither could Yoruichi properly overwhelm Soi Fon and wrap her in such a powerful embrace as she had before.

They stopped for a moment, both standing up and with their bodies about a foot apart. Their hands were clasped together, both women trying to prevent the other from being able to grapple one another. Yoruichi smiled and Soi blushed, though she tried as hard as she could to fight it. Neither woman showed any sign of strain, though both were applying a good deal of strength to try to get the other to yield.

"See?" she said, turning her mildly-red face towards her subordinates. "Even if you are confronted with someone with superior technical skills, the right amount of persistence and know-how can guarantee that you will never have to submit to her," Soi cursed herself in that instant, realizing her error, "_them_. You will not have to submit to them." She let go of Yoruichi's hands, and Yoruichi relaxed, understanding that the exercise was over. "Alright, dismissed," Soi Fon said, and the Onmitsukido filed out.

"Well? Surprised to see me up this early?" Yoruichi asked.

"Pleasantly surprised," Soi Fon replied. "Thank you for attending my training session, Yoruichi." She stuck with the informal designation, knowing that it was to Yoruichi's desire. "Excuse me, I must be going," she added.

"What?" Yoruichi asked incredulously. "But I wanted to help you through your day, Soi Fon."

"Shinigami Women's Association," Soi rattled off quickly. "Club officers' meeting, and Kusajishi-san is rather strict about keeping those proceedings secret."

"If you say so…" Yoruichi replied, sounding moderately disappointed.

~~0000~~

Thus Yoruichi was being quiet, because she had a lot of thinking to do. What was bothering Soi Fon? It couldn't have been her tardiness in returning from her night out with Kukaku, as her surprise visit to Soi Fon's training exercise should have made up for that. She would have expected praise from her Little Bee, praise for finally embracing a good habit like waking up before noon in the mornings. Instead she had gotten the same false happiness that she had seen the night before. Soi Fon had always been a hard girl to read, but this was downright puzzling.

~~0000~~

Soi Fon was at the Shinigami Womens' Association officers' meeting in body only, as she too was occupied by the same thoughts that currently occupied Yoruichi's mind.

_What is wrong with me?_ That was the main question. She had been so sure, so certain that she was so in love with Yoruichi-sama. To get Yoruichi-sama to acknowledge that love and return it, Soi Fon had been certain that that would be the key to her ultimate happiness, but now that was all being thrown into uncertainty. Soi Fon was no longer certain of what she felt. All she knew was that the emotions were powerful, but love was merely one of many emotions that could be quite potent. Perhaps what she felt for her Yoruichi-sama was merely the remnants of her old youthful admiration for her combined with the remnants of the hundred-year obsession with Yoruichi as a target.

She had felt the resentment creeping back into her ever since she had brought Yoruichi-sama back to the Soul Society, derived from the way that Yoruichi made Soi Fon feel inadequate about who she was and what she was capable of doing. A century's worth of growth and experience still made Soi Fon seem like the bumbling tagalong girl she had been, as if she had not progressed at all. You could not love someone who made you feel bad about yourself, and yet that seemed to be exactly where Soi Fon was.

The feelings had only magnified when Yoruichi had gone out drinking with Kukaku Shiba late one night, and thus had not returned until well into the following day. In her rational mind, Soi Fon understood it perfectly: she could not expect Yoruichi to devote her whole life to spending time with her, especially given that Soi was too cowardly to tell Yoruichi how she really felt. If Yoruichi wanted to see one of her many other friends, she had every right to. But at the same time, Soi could not deny what she had felt. Hurt. She had felt hurt when she had returned to her office and Yoruichi had not been there, a retread of the feelings she had felt on that day a hundred years ago. It was irrational, she acknowledged that, but that was how she had felt. You could not love someone who made you hurt, or at least that's what Soi Fon thought.

She was no expert in love, of course. The only feeling Soi Fon had ever felt that might even qualify as love had been her mystery feelings towards Yoruichi-sama. From her cold, formal upbringing by her family to her authoritarian relationship with her subordinates, she had no standard against which to judge her feelings. Whatever her relationship with Yoruichi was, she had never felt anything like it, but there was sufficient evidence to believe it was not love.

Yoruichi's intrusion on Soi Fon's exercises earlier that day had only cemented that suspicion. The very fact that Soi Fon was even portraying Yoruichi's actions as "intrusion" told the tale: it felt as though Yoruichi was stepping on her toes, intruding on Soi's authority. Soi Fon knew she should have been happy to see Yoruichi awake before noon, happy that Yoruichi was taking an interest in Soi's life, but instead it had all gone the other way. These feelings, these doubts, had emerged as the fruits of that feeling of hurt when, even for a moment, Soi Fon had had to relive that feeling of abandonment.

Soi Fon was completely occupied by these thoughts, ignoring the proceedings of the Association officers' meeting as she grappled with these key issues. What was love, really? Was what she felt for Yoruichi really love? If she didn't love her, then what should she do? What would she do? Be friends with Yoruichi-sama, go back to hating her?

No. Soi Fon was entirely uncertain about the nature of what she felt towards Yoruichi, but what was true was that despite the hurt that came with Yoruichi's return, more happiness had also returned to Soi Fon's life than she had had in a hundred years. That happiness was real even if the love was not quite there, and if Soi could be happy with Yoruichi, perhaps she could learn to truly love her. She didn't really have a choice; her entire existence was too wrapped up in that woman, and if Soi Fon turned her away now it would merely breed awkwardness between them that could easily collapse into renewed hate. Happiness, even if tinged with emotional confusion and minor heartbreak, was preferable to the tightly-wound, viciously hateful woman that Soi Fon had once been, and Yoruichi was the only happiness she knew.

If she was determined to pursue this, then that presented the next problem: where to go from here? There was no doubt that Yoruichi-sama would have noticed how cold she had been towards her in the past day, and all of these proceedings were well off from the plan Soi Fon had once set in place. Of course, parts of the plan could still be salvaged. She had had a whole range of dates prepared for the latter half of the 28-day run. Potently romantic dates fitting for someone looking to get a steady girlfriend (at least as far as her research had shown), that should be powerful enough to get her back into Yoruichi-sama's good graces and get back on track, but first she would need to…

"Soi Fon-san! Soi Fon-san!"

Soi Fon was finally dragged forcibly from the disorder of her own mind and into the reality of the Shinigami Womens' Association Officers' meeting. "I'm sorry?" she asked.

"Kusajishi-san wants to know if you have any ideas for the Female Souls' Festival, Soi Fon-san," said Nanao Ise. "Please pay attention."

Of course, the Female Souls' Festival! Soi Fon had forgotten that it was within this 28-day span. She cursed the lunar calendar and its unpredictability. Either way, it presented Soi Fon with an opportunity not only to take Yoruichi on the perfect date, but to have a hand in creating the environment in which the date would transpire! Mentally she scrolled through the list of dates she had compiled, knowing that one of them had to fit this theme. One planned-date in particular came to mind, one that was reasonably late in the plan and involved her and Yoruichi-sama enjoying a variety of entertainments…

"Quite a few ideas, actually," Soi Fon said, a predatory smile forming on her face.

"Soi Fon can be scary," Rangiku Matsumoto whispered to Momo Hinamori, who nodded emphatically.

~~0000~~

It was once again Yoruichi's turn to sit in boredom and anticipation, continually pondering her complicated relationship with her Little Bee. She had resolved not to go out that night despite the fact that Soi Fon was away at the meeting and that that meant she had nothing to do, but the normally-exuberant woman was feeling subdued, thrown off by Soi's sudden coldness.

It was thus that Yoruichi was lounging around the anteroom to the Captain's office in the Squad 2 barracks, her golden eyes hooded and shrouded by purplish bangs as she sprawled on a plush chair, seeming half-asleep, when she was alerted by Soi Fon's sudden return as the slight woman slid the shoji open quickly. Her quick entry prompted an equally quick response from Yoruichi, who composed herself and leapt up swiftly, but then her quick tempo slowed. "Hey, Soi Fon," she said in a tone that she hoped and pleaded was completely natural, not wanting to push or prod at Soi's emotional state, which was currently an unknown quantity.

What she got in return was a smile, a real, honest smile, and one that she hadn't seen grace Soi's features in the tenuous past 30 hours. "Hi, Yoruichi," she said.

"How was the meeting?" Yoruichi asked, overjoyed to see that Soi Fon had gotten over whatever was troubling her, but wishing to dance around the subject.

"Good," Soi Fon returned, equally determined to take the question at its superficial value, and not to delve into the reservoir of self-doubt that she had grappled with during the meeting. "We were preparing ideas for the Female Souls' Festival this Thursday."

"That's happening so soon?" Yoruichi queried. "Damn that lunar calendar," she added.

Soi Fon laughed softly, a sympathetic laugh that sounded very strange, but oh so incredibly welcome, coming from her.

"Yeah, it all seems to be happening so fast this year," Soi Fon replied. "The… calendar, I mean," she said, blushing lightly. "Do you want to go to the festival with me, Yoruichi?"

"I'd be delighted," Yoruichi replied. It had been a long time indeed since she had attended a Female Souls' Festival, but she did not mention that, not wanting to ruin the moment with bad memories.

"Good. It's a date," Soi Fon said, that honest, lovable smile still on her lips.

~~0000~~

With her new plans laid and re-instilled with a certain degree of confidence, Soi Fon managed to return things to normal between her and Yoruichi for the next few days, and the harmonious rhythm of their two lifestyles resumed. Yoruichi slept in and no longer deigned to interfere with Soi's morning drills, they spent their afternoons and evenings together and Yoruichi did not go out, and things worked well.

Anticipation lived and grew in both of them, however, an eager restlessness that neither of the well-disciplined women chose to expose, like the brooding energy palpable in the air before a fierce summer storm. Yoruichi was energized by the mystery of it all, still wondering about Soi Fon's intentions even though she was certain that they were good ones. Soi Fon, however, knew that everything hinged on this date, and was pouring all of her vast stores of emotional energy into waiting for it, into analyzing its results. Large investments always carried high risks, as both women soon discovered.

The day of the festival dawned, Thursday, the 18th day since Kisuke Urahara was sealed. All signs pointed to perfection, from the weather to the exceptional performance of Soi Fon's subordinates in their drills that morning. Yoruichi awoke, joined Soi Fon, and they prepared for the afternoon's festivities.

The Female Souls' Festival was an ancient one, unique to the Soul Society. Really, it was much the same as the Male Souls' Festival, involving the community turning out for all sorts of fun rituals. The more traditional rituals for the festival were more female-oriented, such as tea ceremonies and flower-arranging events, but in the modern Soul Society it had diverged into a general-purpose event for fun, complete with street vendors, fireworks, street performers, and plenty of free-flowing alcohol.

But these were only the elements of a normal Female Souls' Festival, and Soi Fon had added special touches to make sure that this festival was perfectly fine-tuned to suit Yoruichi's tastes. The menu was the easiest way to do this, focusing on fish-based dishes as a main theme for the various vendors, as well as making it a requirement that every place that offered food or drink also offered milk, playing on Yoruichi's feline sensibilities. She was able to get away with the milk requirement, ostensibly making it "for the children" so that they'd have something to drink other than water or alcohol, and the fish theme was at least distinct from anything they had done in previous years.

There were more subtle touches as well. Soi Fon had acquired many little pieces of information through diligent snooping (or stalking) since Yoruichi had come back into her life. She knew what Yoruichi's favorite songs were from the music that was currently popular in the World of the Living (an energetic variety of rock-and-roll from about 30 years ago), what her favorite color was (orange), her very specific favorite brand of sake, and a number of other touches more subtle still. Soi Fon had been quite stern in dictating how the festival should be laid out.

"C'mon, Soi Fon," Yoruichi said, standing on one side of the shoji that divided Soi Fon's office from her sleeping quarters. "I want to get there before it gets too crowded…"

"I'm very sorry, Yoruichi," came Soi's voice from the other side. "I just… haven't had to deal with one of these…"

"Do you want me to come in and help you?" Yoruichi said, teasing and lightly suggestive.

"N-no! I've got it, I'm good…" Soi Fon replied.

"Then show me what you've got," Yoruichi said.

Soi Fon slid the shoji open and emerged. She wore traditional festival dress, a slim lavender yukata that hung close to her slimmer frame, bound up with a dark purple obi. _She's so cute,_ Yoruichi thought.

Yoruichi was wearing a light orange yukata that matched the tone of her golden eyes perfectly. It was bound up with a bright red obi. _She's so beautiful,_ Soi Fon thought.

The two contrasting women made an odd but strangely beautiful sight as they strode openly through Soul Society, side by side. Soi Fon was awed by Yoruichi's beauty in that yukata, overcome by the enormity of the fact that she was finally out, together with her Yoruichi-sama in the public eye of Seireitei. This was one moment for which she had waited for a long, long time, to finally step out of Yoruichi-sama's shadow and walk beside her.

Externally, both women looked serene and happy, two companions who may be something more than mere companions, out spending time together, but internally the divisions were beginning to grow. Soi Fon's mood was slowly deflating, realizing that despite the fact that publicly going out with Yoruichi had long been a fantasy of hers, the reality was much more anxious and less fulfilling than she had imagined. She felt an invisible sense of peer pressure, fear that her intentions would be discovered and mocked, fear that Yoruichi would do or say something to cause her to relapse once again into that bumbling tagalong girl in front of all her peers. But she had to be strong, she had to repress her true feelings, her anxiety, her ambiguous feelings towards Yoruichi, all for the sake of her goal, despite the fact that her goal was that same woman, the one whom she was so uncertain about. Soi Fon put on a soft, false smile, swallowing her own nervousness and bottling up her nervous energy.

Yoruichi's concern was still all wrapped up in her Little Bee, in wondering what exactly was going on behind those iron-grey eyes. Yoruichi saw the fake smile easily enough, however, and thought of something she could do to comfort Soi Fon. She reached out her hand, shrouded in the long sleeve of the yukata, and negotiated her way past Soi's sleeve, brushing fingers at her Little Bee's hand, but that was definitely well outside Soi Fon's comfort zone, and her hand darted deeper within the confines of its sleeve. Yoruichi frowned, fearing that Soi was relapsing into whatever strange mood had afflicted her earlier in the week, but she did not say anything, hoping only that Soi Fon would enjoy the festival.

~~0000~~

The festival went off smoothly, indeed it went off so smoothly as to be almost mechanical, bland, tasteless. For what it was worth, Soi's efforts had indeed paid off and Yoruichi was enjoying all of the small details that she had worked so hard to integrate into the festival. It had been a long time since Yoruichi had been out on a social outing that was so… well, the best word was perfect, or it would have been perfect had her date actually been doing more than going through the motions.

Try as she might, Soi Fon just couldn't feel it anymore. She was far too preoccupied by her own anxiety, anxiety that spiked every time she saw a shinigami she knew, especially one of her peers. It was foolish for her to be so concerned, she was an equal among the Captains and had no-one to answer to except the Captain Commander and Central 46, but she could not deny it, as that invisible feeling of social anxiety, and the more she felt, the more she shut out, closing herself down even to Yoruichi. As they sampled some of the food vendors, enjoyed the entertainment, and encountered more than a few of Soi Fon's acquaintances. No-one seemed particularly concerned with Soi Fon and Yoruichi attending the festival together, but nothing could stop the anxiety growing inexorably in Soi Fon.

"Well hello there, fancy seeing you two together again," they were confronted by Shunsui Kyouraku, Nanao Ise, and Jushiro Ukitake, just outside a bar (as if Kyouraku could be found anywhere else). "It's been a while since you've been to a Female Souls' Festival, Miss Yoruichi."

"I just needed the right kind of persuasion," Yoruichi replied, turning and smiling at Soi Fon who responded with another fake grin, albeit a convincing one. On top of all the anxiety was feeling, he had to show up. She had always found Kyouraku far too similar to Urahara for comfort, and he was the last thing she needed right now (well, it would be worse if Urahara himself returned).

"I was wondering what exactly had gotten our little lady to wear a yukata," Kyouraku said with a knowing smile. Nanao remained impassive, while Ukitake chuckled a little. Soi Fon glared, silently praying that they would just go away, but instead… "How about a drink?" Kyouraku offered, motioning towards the entrance to the bar.

"Just a drink," Nanao quipped, putting emphasis on the singular form. "It's not like tomorrow is a vacation day." Soi Fon silently thanked her.

"Yeah, plus we should start slow, it's only the afternoon," Yoruichi said, laughing and flashing a smile at the two men.

"That sounds reasonable," Ukitake added. The five of them went into the bar.

What followed merely compounded Soi Fon's anxiety. The strictly-disciplined woman was also a teetotaler, vigilantly determined not to consume anything that could diminish her focus or put her off her guard. To that end, she avoided social activities that revolved around drinking, as being sober during such activities simply meant that she would be incredibly self-conscious, just as she was now. And so she hated herself, for it seemed to her as though she wasn't abstaining from the sake by choice (although she was), but rather like she was a little girl, a child among adults, among people who were unapproachably better than her, people like the Goddess of Flash, her Goddess. But she was not her Goddess, of course, because she a woman, and Soi was only a little girl.

Soi Fon didn't notice that Nanao was also not drinking, but individuals suffering social anxiety often failed to notice that they were not alone. Indeed Soi Fon was like a girl again, a teenager, going through all the emotional issues that she had averted in her own teenage years by focusing so singly on her training. She also didn't notice that Yoruichi had been nursing the same bowl of sake from the beginning, not wanting to get drunk while her Little Bee remained sober. The five of them knelt around a table low to the ground in one room of the bar, Yoruichi and Soi Fon on one side, Nanao at the table's head, and Kyouraku and Ukitake on the other.

Things got worse. As old drunken soldiers had the tendency to do, Kyouraku and Ukitake told old war stories. "Hah, the Winter War was nothing," Kyouraku said. "What was really scary was during that whole Kuchiki execution thing, when Ukitake and me ended up fighting Old Man Yama. You remember that?"

"I agree that it was scarier than anything Aizen threw at us," Ukitake said. "In fact, if Aizen hadn't revealed his betrayal when he had, we'd likely be ash by now."

"Ain't that the truth," Kyouraku replied. "He'd've burnt us to a crisp, stubborn old geezer, but then Kotetsu's warning got out and we all scrambled to stop Aizen. Come to think of it," he added, "what were the two of you doing that you were able to get on the scene that fast?"

Soi Fon was silent, clenching her fists tightly over her lap, completely unwilling to answer that question and silently cursing that they had brought this up.

"You know me," Yoruichi lied. "Always a step ahead. Well, this was fun," she said, draining what was left of only her second bowl, "but there's still lots of festival to see. See ya," she added, getting up. Incredibly grateful for Yoruichi's intervention, Soi Fon followed her out into the street. It was getting onto evening, and the light from the sun was beginning to fade to orange.

They walked down the street for a time with Yoruichi keenly focused on her companion. She was not drunk, having imbibed only enough sake that she was feeling buzzed, and so felt she had enough of a grasp of the situation to assess what was wrong with Soi Fon. She seemed unusually tense, and given that this was Soi Fon she was talking about, that was saying something. Yoruichi felt she could no longer stay silent, and broached the subject. "What's wrong, Soi Fon? You look restless."

_I'm wrong. Everything's wrong._ "I am a little restless," Soi Fon said, refusing to acknowledge the truth. "I thought this would be more fun than it was…" the second statement was true, though she was trying to imply something else.

"So why don't we get out of here?" Yoruichi proposed. "Go do something physical, something to get the blood pumping."

Soi Fon blushed beet red again, drawing a very salacious conclusion from Yoruichi's suggestion.

Yoruichi laughed. "No, no, not that… Something like a game. Some sort of exercise…" she paused momentarily as she thought. "How about a game of tag?" Yoruichi said, ripping off her yukata with one arm.

"Wha-, Yoruichi-sama!" Soi Fon yelped. She cringed, fearing Yoruichi's sudden nudity, but opened her eyes to see that Yoruichi had been wearing her slim, black, revealing Onmitsukido uniform under the dress kimono.

"What?" Yoruichi replied, a mischievous grin on her lips.

"Never mind," Soi Fon replied, also ripping her yukata off to reveal that she too wore the Onmitsukido uniform underneath. "Let's go."

~~~000000~~~

The two dashed off to the forests that were sheltered within the walls of Seireitei, the nearest place where they could play their little game in private. It was a fateful place for the both of them, as the forests were below Sokyoku Hill, the place where violence had once sprung up between them, where Soi Fon had said hateful things, had cried her heart out, and where Yoruichi had said little in reply. Fate, or the fact that the place was on their minds after Kyouraku mentioned it, brought them back to that spot, back while both women writhed in severe and repressed emotional confusion. In short, it was a wholesale recipe for disaster.

"I'll be "it" first," Yoruichi said, as the two women perched on a large tree branch in the midst of the forest. "How much of a head start do you want?"

"Less than three seconds," Soi Fon quipped, remembering their little race through the Precipice World. Said properly, it could have been a gentle jibe between companions, but Soi's cold, arrogant tone left Yoruichi feeling just slightly offended.

"Two," Yoruichi said, trying to smile, but fearing more and more that something was wrong with her Little Bee. "Go!" she barked, and Soi Fon sped off.

Determined to properly catch her this time, Yoruichi crouched on the branch for precisely two seconds, a cat ready to pounce, then dashed off in pursuit of her.

A two second head start, with Yoruichi once again determined to prove that she was definitively better than Soi Fon, meant that Yoruichi got her in 17 seconds flat. Soi Fon was aware that she was caught only a split instant before she felt that firm hand on her shoulder, and the mocking "Tag, you're it!"

With that grin on her face that Soi Fon had come to hate more and more, Yoruichi dashed off into the evening forest. Involuntarily Soi let out a pulse of spiritual pressure, fueled by the anger and resentment that had been brooding under the surface ever since Yoruichi had gone out drinking with Kukaku. No. This anger was older than that, it was the same resentment she had felt on that day, in this very forest. That same hopeless frustration, the frustration of knowing that she was simply inferior, that no matter how hard anyone worked, they could never overcome the station she was born into, she would never be more than a bumbling, servile girl destined to forever be in the shadow of the Shihoin family, to be in the shadow of that woman. She had tried to play pretend that she could be Yoruichi's girlfriend, and had ended up appearing to be just that, a little girl playing pretend, hanging along at the heels of a grown-up who tolerated her out of a sense of patronizing pity.

_Is that really all I am?_ Soi Fon thought as she tore through the forest, pursuing the flitting will-o-the-wisp that was Yoruichi Shihoin. A little girl who has wasted her life pretending to be someone important, pretending to be Yoruichi-sama, a Captain of Squad Two and Commander of the Onmitsukido, pretending she could be perfect and be happy and have everything go her way without trying. That was the picture of a truly pathetic individual, doomed to spend their life being known as nothing more than a copycat, a shell of someone else.

"Got ya!" Soi Fon roared, lashing out with her leg in an effort to make contact with some part of Yoruichi's body. She saw an instantaneous flash of pearly white, that damned smile of Yoruichi-sama's, before her foot put a sizable dent in the trunk of a tree. She heard a flicker of laughter, and the hunt resumed.

_I was wrong about all of this._ Soi Fon realized. She couldn't be together with the woman who was the singular source of all her insecurities. Everything that was wrong with her life was due to Yoruichi-sama, and she had been certain of that fact for a hundred years, only forgetting when the weakness of her own heart was overawed by that impossibly superior woman. She came crawling back because she was weak, because she was weak to Yoruichi-sama, and all the show of strength that she made through her life was an effort to hide that weakness.

She knew she was just angry, that she was just venting and did not really hate her Yoruichi-sama like that. But it felt good to think these thoughts. It was tempting to think that she could solve all her problems by just expelling Yoruichi from her life forever, but in the end it would just make her more miserable. For now, however, she indulged in those dark, angry thoughts. It felt good, liberating her from the frustration she had felt ever since this whole scheme had started. The exercise was both aggravating her and clearing her head. She imagined catching Yoruichi, tagging her, smacking her down and showing Yoruichi just how strong she really was.

And in visualizing it, she achieved it. She managed to get perpendicular to Yoruichi as the woman landed deftly on a rock in the forest. As Yoruichi's momentum still drove her into the rock and before her legs could kick back to launch her off into another shunpo, Soi Fon landed on that rock as well.

Soi Fon roared. A nonverbal roar this time, a sound of all her frustration, all her emotional turmoil, unleashing at once, as she lashed out with her clenched fist to make contact with Yoruichi. Her fist hit Yoruichi full-on in her stomach, and the woman rocketed back, landing on the forest floor in a heap.

As soon as it had dawned on her, Soi Fon's mania, the strange rage that had gripped her, vanished, and she realized the enormity of what she had done. Yoruichi, as powerful a woman as she was, was mostly unhurt outside of being a little winded, but the true damage ran far deeper. Soi Fon stared into those golden eyes, seeing in those deep golden eyes shock and hurt that shook the petite woman to her core. Soi reached out with her hand momentarily, her brain scrambling for the right words, but Yoruichi simply flickered and was gone. Soi Fon extended her senses, frantically hoping that she was somewhere, anywhere…

But Soi Fon was alone, feeling that sense of abandonment all the more keenly.

Yoruichi-sama had left her, and this time it was all her fault.

She had failed.

**Author's Note:** _Or has she? Sorry this one took 2 weeks to deliver, work and all, plus this was a long chapter. On the bright side, the next chapter (and the chapter following) should each be about half as long, so you shouldn't have as long to find out. Please review!  
><em>


	5. Days 19 to 23: Soi Fon's Grief

Days 19-23: Soi Fon's Grief

Shaolin Fon processed grief differently than most people.

It started with Denial, much as it had before. Just like in those first days after the incident a hundred years ago, the instant after she woke up was that one glorious, soaring moment of hope before reality set in. For just a second, she could defy that reality and grasp at the fraying threads of her dreams, and for just a second more she could at least entertain the thought that maybe it wasn't as bad as she thought it was.

But of course it never was. The hard reality hit her just as it always did. Depression followed Denial, however, and this was where Soi Fon's processing of grief deviated from the clinically-accepted norm. After verifying that the situation was indeed as bad as her fears made it out to be, she sank into a sort of emotional catatonia. Soi Fon was a strong woman in her own right, ironbound to do her duty, but that did not mean that she had to be particularly engaged in her work.

The Depression stage endured throughout that whole horrible day, the 19th since Kisuke Urahara had been sealed away. Soi Fon woke up, dressed, and undertook her duties as Captain. She trained her troops, criticizing them and correcting their form, filled out the day's dose of the never-ending paperwork, ate and drank, and did so perfectly, but she had no engagement with the people or things in her world. There was no taste to the food, she felt no pride in her subordinates, or even pride in herself, feeling instead a listless emptiness that pervaded all things, emptiness inspired by absence which had in turn been brought about by her own incompetence, but Depression was not the stage to deal with anything but the feeling of absence, and was not yet time to process the particulars of why she was feeling bad.

Discipline and routine saved her in the Depression stage, for even though she felt nothing except emptiness, she could, like a machine, be set to do the same tasks that she had done before, day after day ever since she had achieved her Captaincy. Routine, as well as the fact that she had no-one with whom she was emotionally attached (at least, not anymore) meant that no-one was aware that anything was wrong with her. She had her dinner and went to bed, falling asleep right away, and all things were normal.

Her sleep was restless, however, and that signaled the arrival of the third phase, a phase which she had once spent a century trapped in: Anger. The Anger phase was a slow one for Soi Fon, however. Her rage was less explosive than some, and was still tinged with hints of depression and self-loathing. The last time she had dealt with Anger by targeting the source of her grief, she had channeled that rage into ambition, into a full-scale effort to make herself a stronger woman and an effective leader, self-betterment initiatives that would lead her to the target of her Anger: Yoruichi Shihoin. But it had taken a while for her to get around to being mad at Yoruichi. Instead she had been mad at the situation itself, or mad at herself.

This time, however, realization dawned quickly. The loss she had endured this time was her fault, entirely her fault, and now she would have to deal with the consequences for a long, long time to come.  
>The situation had been entirely in her hands, she had been in total control, had been making great strides. She remembered that first date, the walk through the park in Karakura Town, remembering how at ease she had been with her Yoruichi-sama, how natural their interactions had seemed. She remembered how that date had ended; a taste of the lips of the Goddess of Flash.<p>

But from that point forward Soi Fon had consistently screwed it up. She had allowed her petty, childish resentments towards Yoruichi-sama build and build, and then had done something to alienate Yoruichi-sama irrevocably. Now Yoruichi would think she was insane, or at least think that a large part of Soi Fon still hated her.

Worse still, Soi Fon had likely sunk their relationship back to lower than the old status quo. At least after the last time she had attacked Yoruichi, their bitter reunion, Yoruichi had stayed to hear her out, had bestowed some grace upon her and forgiven her for the outburst, but now Soi Fon had proven herself to be primarily petty and hateful before Yoruichi-sama. Now it was all gone, and she was solely to blame.

So her Anger was directed at herself this time. Now she was consumed by the idea that she could have succeeded, that she had been making progress, but had thrown it all away because of her own neuroses, her own selfish concerns about her image, her petty jealousy of Yoruichi-sama. She was a truly pathetic, childish woman who, at the end of the day, would never be able to get what she truly wanted due to her own incompetence.

She had no outlet for this anger, since she herself was the object of it. Any sort of self-immolation or self-abuse, up to and including suicide, was completely out of the question for anyone of the Fon clan. One of the values that was most deeply imbued in her was the notion that you had to be responsible for your own actions, all of them, and that your life was given over to your duty. She was a Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and Commander of the Onmitsukido; she would do nothing to lessen her capacity to serve in those roles, and she would bear those responsibilities and continue to bear the burden of her actions, but that would not stop her from being angry at herself.

She did not consider the idea of trying again, at least not at this juncture. Her anger was still tinged with depression, a constant reminder of her failure beating its relentless rhythm in her mind, and she was too demoralized to even consider trying again. It also made little sense for Yoruichi-sama to want to deal with her anytime in the near future. That woman had many friends, and for the time, she would probably be better off without Soi Fon and her neuroses, better off without someone who could just up and snap at any instant.

For a couple days she dealt with the anger simply by denying it, by shoving it aside and continuing to go about her duty. She had no other recourse but to push on with her life, knowing that because of her failure, Yoruichi-sama would likely never be a part of it again. With her hope gone, all she had was a sense of duty, and a powerful, purposeless anger residing behind that sense of duty.

Despite her misery, she was at least able to function, and things seemed to be getting better. She felt a sense of purpose again, even if it was a purpose devoid of all happiness, a sterile life of rules and regimentation. Food regained its taste, and she could feel the bite of her words when she criticized her troops. Sure she lacked happiness and had no chance of ever becoming anything other than a frigid, heartless martinet, but that should be enough for anyone, right?

Of course. She could live like that.

~~~000000~~~

Day 23 dawned, though Soi Fon had only a vague awareness of it. The countdown to Kisuke's release had no more bearing on her life, except knowledge that a potential ally (however much she hated the idea of working with him) would once again be available. Soi had toyed with the idea of contacting Hachi to release Urahara early… for about 0.005 seconds. Even if she could never have Yoruichi-sama and even if he didn't like her that way, Soi Fon still hated that man.

The only reason the day was significant for Soi Fon at all was because that was the day that Omaeda would finally be able to return to duty. Unfortunately for her, Soi Fon was denied the privilege of seeing the man who had gotten two weeks off because she also had a Captain's Meeting that day at 1000 hours.

It was the first regular meeting that had taken place since the day Hachi had arrived, though there wasn't much new business, aside from one issue that had emerged rather recently.

Soi Fon stood in line amongst the other Captains, taking her position at the Captain-Commander's right side with a certain amount of pride. Yes, she still had her duty.

"In the time since the Winter War, we have made significant progress," said Captain-Commander Yamamoto. "The resolution to revoke the outlaw status of the Visoreds will be considered formally before Central 46 before the end of the week, so I believe it is prudent that we discuss extension of an offer to the former Captains among them to consider resuming their posts. I would like to hear your thoughts."

"That might be a good idea," Ukitake said. "Among the Visoreds are three former Captains of the Squads where we have vacancies. We could minimize transitional difficulties."

"They are quite formidable with their Hollow powers," Byakuya Kuchiki added. "With such powers, they are likely stronger than any candidates we could put forward. I see no reason why we should not at least extend the offer."

Soi Fon coughed derisively, then realized that she had done so aloud.

"I take it you have an objection, Captain Soi Fon?" Yamamoto said, his voice gravelly and vaguely menacing as he clawed at his staff.

She knew she had made a mistake, and in the next instant, she didn't care. "Talking about letting them back in just because they're strong," she said, strong derision in her voice. "Why don't you just let all the criminals back in? Let Aizen waltz out of jail to take back the 5th, or let those irresponsible fools Shihoin and Urahara to take the Captaincy back from me and Kurotsuchi!"

"Do not drag me into your insecurities," Mayuri Kurotsuchi seethed, pointing at her accusingly. "There is no-one who can replace me."

"You're right," Soi Fon spat back. "Not even Urahara is as twisted as you."

That inspired a light chuckle from Kyouraku, though Unohana glared at him and he tried to straighten his face.

"Look here, Soi Fon," Zaraki growled, rounding in on the argument. "Don't act like you're so much better than all of us. I still haven't paid you back for that toilet-paper incident a few weeks back."

Not stopping to ponder how exactly Zaraki had found out about that, Soi Fon instead continued with her rant, her anger now having taken on momentum of its own. "Pay me back, seriously?" she said. "That was because you beat up my Lieutenant to the point where he was in healing for two weeks! And was he ever disciplined for that?" she asked loudly, rounding on Yamamoto. "Of course not! That's why we shouldn't let any one of those Visoreds back in. We're infested with criminals as it is!"

"Are you satisfied, Captain Soi Fon?" Yamamoto asked, his voice low and dangerous. She was not intimidated by him, but she at least respected him, and her anger began to ebb, not wanting to direct her wrath at him. She blushed furiously, already sliding into embarrassment at her own outburst.

"Captain Zaraki was confined to quarters for a week for his misdeeds," Yamamoto continued. "And if you have any issues with another Captain's conduct, they should be brought before me."

The meeting proceeded from there discussing a number of other trivialities, the matter of the offer to the Visoreds being tabled for the time being. Soi Fon didn't particularly care. She spent the bulk of that time trying to contain her own embarrassment at her outburst while she kept a trademark scowl on her face.

~~0000~~

The meeting ended and the Captains went their separate ways. Soi Fon walked in the direction of the Squad Two barracks initially, but as soon as she was certain no-one was around, she suddenly shunpoed off in another direction. A quick word with Jidanbo and she was outside Seireitei, in the Rukon District, and a few instants after that, she arrived at a secluded area that was not actually that far from the Zone Three Training Grounds. Zaraki's boredom may have leveled a part of that area, but beyond a thicket too dense for easy training, there was a place that she remembered, but had not been to in many decades.

It was an outcropping of rocks, like a small hill or mesa. This was not unusual in the geography of the Soul Society, but this particular outcropping was different. Some geological turmoil in some eon past had thrust up from the depths of the spirit world a large chunk of indestructible stone. Its invulnerability made it an important place for Soi Fon: it was her Angry place, the place she went when all her discipline, all her self-control, failed her, and the rage that stood caged in her threatened to overcome her.

In this case, it was prompted by her outburst during the Captain's meeting. She had insulted the Visoreds, one of whom had been an invaluable help to her on two separate occasions as well as generally disrupting the flow of the meeting, and on top of it all, she had mentioned Yoruichi-sama. If it meant that she was already beginning to hate Yoruichi-sama again, she had to stop it. She had to manifest her rage in physical destruction for as long as she needed to. For someone at the Captain-level, it was impossible to be able to just let loose unless a field full of Gillians stood before you.

That's what made her Angry place so important. The rock could not be destroyed, no matter how much power she concentrated on it. She would not leave a trace of her rage, and yet she would still be able to vent some of her rage, at least until she was able to repress it normally. She had not had a chance to test it, but she bet that even Shunko-powered blows would not affect it. Perhaps she would get that chance today. Jakuho Raikoben might be able to do something, but that would cause too much collateral damage to the surrounding forest, and likely reveal her activities, which would be disastrous in and of itself. Equally, she was strong enough to guarantee that she would not harm herself in her own rage. She could strike the rock, but beyond some bleeding knuckles (which she considered a mere sign of serious training) she too would come back unscathed.

She cast off her haori, letting her spirit pressure surge, causing her two long braids to flutter in the sudden wind. As she extended her senses to drink in the taste of her own reiatsu, she suddenly reined it all back in, repressing reiatsu and rage in an instant. She dove for her cast-aside Captain's haori, the rageaholic animal gone and the self-conscious girl-woman come back to the fore, but it was too late for her to retrieve it before _they_ arrived on scene.

Three reiatsu signatures. The first was like a mountain's peak: savage and rough-edged on the surface, but rock-solid and stable on the inside. The second was like the sea: huge, calm, and with great depth, something beautiful and serene to behold, but it hid a great fury. The third was much like the second, but far lesser in size and depth, a lake next to the sea.

"Oh, it's Soi Fon," said Sajin Komamura, the giant fox shinigami and Captain of Squad 7 walking with Retsu Unohana to his left, and to her left was her own perpetual tagalong girl and Lieutenant, Isane Kotetsu.

Soi Fon whirled around, cycling through emotions quickly. She was embarrassed to have two fellow Captains come and catch her at her Angry place, then briefly angry that they had done so, finally she sunk to curiosity and suspicion, wanting at least to give these three the benefit of the doubt.

The tightly-wound, short-tempered woman had equally short relationships with many of her peers, but Komamura and Unohana were, perhaps, the two she got along best with. She appreciated Komamura's no-nonsense attitude, the man (canine?) was serious without the arrogance that came along with Byakuya Kuchiki, dedicated to his work, quiet and uncomplaining. Almost what she wished she could be; all duty without the short temper. Unohana was a calming person, her calm almost as infectious as Zaraki's lack of discipline, and she was one of the few people who could be kind to Soi Fon without the younger woman thinking she was being patronized. Isane, however, was perhaps the one person in all of the Soul Society with whom Soi Fon completely sympathized, the devoted young woman who worked dutifully completely in the shadow of a superior woman who was impossible to resent.

"What are you doing all the way out here, Soi Fon?" Unohana asked.

"I could be asking you that," Soi Fon replied, keeping her tone as neutral as possible.

"It's strange," Komamura interjected. "I didn't think anyone else knew about this place."

"There's something special about this place?" Soi Fon asked. It was a lie, and a pathetic one at that.

"I have come hear several times over the years to vent my rage upon these rocks," Komamura said with no sense of self-consciousness. "They have never yielded to my rage, and remain the same as I have ever found them."

"Are you here for the same purpose, Soi Fon-san?" Unohana added gently.

Soi Fon glared at her momentarily, all the more suspicious that they had come to intrude on her personal affairs. "I am here to train," she said, "and nothing more." Lies compounded one over the other. "Unless I am interrupting one of your venting sessions," she added, a touch of venom in her voice.

"No," Komamura replied. "Not since Kaname left."

"I once met Komamura-san here to make sure that he did not inadvertently incapacitate himself," Unohana said. "In the end Komamura-san found speaking with me more enjoyable than punching a rock, and since then we have made regular excursions out here."

"What can I say," Komamura added. "It's awfully hard to refuse Unohana-san."

"So what about her?" Soi Fon asked defensively, indicating Isane.

"Kotetsu-san always makes for pleasant company as well," Unohana said.

"Thank you, Captain Unohana," Isane replied, blushing slightly.

Soi Fon scowled at all of them as she put her haori back on. She almost never felt patronized when speaking to Unohana, but she was pushing it damn close this time. Komamura and Unohana had both borne firsthand witness to her little outburst at the Captain's meeting, and the last thing she wanted was any sort of therapy. But she was equally determined to not let herself be intimidated by anyone, so she would take them up on the unspoken offer. "Could I come with you?" she asked.

"Certainly," Unohana said as Komamura nodded.

~~0000~~

The walk through the Rukongai Forest with Unohana, Komamura, and Isane was mostly quiet, but soothing and medicating in its own way. The calming reiatsu emanating from her three traveling companions seemed to smooth out Soi Fon's rough edges, taming the anger in a non-destructive way. Soi Fon was just beginning to think that this excursion may be nothing more than it appeared, and may indeed have been just what she needed, until finally Unohana spoke.

"So how did your date with Yoruichi-san go?" she asked innocuously, her hooded eyes unreadable.

Soi Fon did not stop walking, or make any other visible sign, but responded smoothly. "It did not end well."

"What happened?" it was Isane Kotetsu who spoke. She was apparently bolder than Soi Fon assumed.

"I do not want to talk about it," Soi Fon replied.

"I can understand that," Komamura said. "I spent a long time not talking about things, and that's how I ended up going to the rock."

Soi Fon now glared at him openly. "You three are determined to force-feed me this therapy crap, aren't you?"

"We're just having a conversation," Unohana said, "there's no need to be hostile."

"But I don't want to talk about it," Soi Fon insisted, her voice harder.

"There's no need to be hostile," Unohana said, opening her eyes slightly and revealing but a glimpse of the wrath that the calming seas could unleash.

Even Soi Fon was afraid for that instant, and she responded, albeit grudgingly. "I just wasn't comfortable with her."

"But you're in love with her, aren't you?" Isane interjected, obviously assuming that Soi would be too afraid of Unohana to do anything violent.

"Who told you that?" Soi Fon said, blushing slightly as the hint of that youthful, vulnerable Soi Fon emerged for the first time since the day of the festival.

"It's one of those things that's obvious to everyone," Komamura said, "like the time I spent eighty years with a drum over my head. Everyone knew there was something off about me, and I just ended up looking stupid and not being able to breathe well."

"How can you be so candid about that?" Soi Fon asked, his self-deprecation getting on her nerves.

"It's easier," Komamura replied. "Easier than spending all my time and energy in deception, trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes when all it does is make everything harder for everyone involved."

"So you're telling me I should be honest with Yoruichi?" she said, unwilling to admit that they were right but unwilling to just end the entire conversation. "That would be very hard, especially now."

"The sunk-cost fallacy," Unohana said.

"What?" Soi Fon replied.

"The sunk-cost fallacy is when people continue to pour time and effort into what is clearly a nonproductive venture," Isane explained. "They assume that because they've put so much into it so far, the only thing they can do is continue in that way."

"It's a very wasteful way to live," Unohana said.

Soi Fon knew she should have been angry at that bleak assessment of her life, especially since she was in the Anger phase, but instead she was contemplative. "But what will she say?" she instead asked.

"You don't sound like you're in a very good place with her right now," Isane said. "Could anything you say really make things worse, even if it's the truth?"

"Honesty is the best policy," Komamura said succinctly.

"Well this has all been very uncomfortable," Soi Fon said in reply. "Good day," and in a flash, she was gone.

"Will she be okay?" Isane asked, looking worried.

"She'll be fine," Unohana said, and Komamura nodded his agreement.

~~~000000~~~

A few hours later, the Grand Senkaimon of Seireitei opened and Soi Fon dashed through. She was on a mission, a fated mission, one that would relieve her of the burden that had slowly crushed her psyche under its weight for a hundred and fifty years.

Soi Fon did not go with hope, for she had no hope that she could somehow make it all okay if she succeeded in her mission. There was no going back to the idyllic time when she and Yoruichi-sama had been master and servant, when their mutual happiness had been predicated on the natural order of things. Nor was there any going back even unto the time when she had cried her heart out before Yoruichi-sama, and she had forgiven her for her misguided fury. In all likelihood, she still faced a long future alone, forced to find some other source of happiness or none at all.

Yourichi-sama would know how she felt, at least, and that would have to be enough. She would be free of the secret, and would, at last, be free to act uninhibited in regards to how she interacted with Yoruichi-sama. She would, for the first time, be emotionally liberated, and that would make facing a lifetime of loneliness all that much more palatable.

So it was that Soi Fon knew what she had to do. Emerge from the other Senkaimon in Karakura Town, find Yoruichi-sama, prostrate herself before her, confess the depth of her feelings, and beg for Yoruichi-sama's understanding, in lieu of forgiveness which she knew she had no right to ask for. A quick and easy way to gain peace of mind.

As she dashed through the darkness of the Precipice World, she noted the absence of the Cleaner. It was usually after her by now, and she had firsthand experience from her last trip through that it had returned and was just as vigorous as ever. Before she had more than a moment to ponder that irregularity, she sensed it. That familiar spiritual pressure, the one that had made an indentation upon her very soul.

Yoruichi-sama.

She sped in out of the gloom, the two women shunpoing towards one another before they finally stopped, their bodies a scant yard apart on the bone-strewn path between Worlds. Yoruichi stood before her in the outfit she was most accustomed to seeing her in, the orange silk shirt atop the shunko-modified Onmitsukido uniform. Her expression, her golden eyes were unreadable, her expression inscrutable.

"Y-Yoruichi-sama?" Soi Fon asked. The old stammer, the old her, returning to the fore. "What are you doing h…" she stopped, quickly remembering her mission. "Yoruichi-sama, I…" she began, pointing her forehead downwards as she prepared to bow and closing her eyes, but the well-trained woman sensed movement before her, opening her eyes.

Yoruichi was bowed upon the path before her, her knees on the dirt and her head so low that her purple ponytail had inverted, hanging over her bangs.

"I'm sorry." Yoruichi said. "I'm so sorry, Soi Fon."

**Author's Note: **_Next chapter will explain why Yoruichi did this, retreading over the same days but all in Karakura Town. Click the review button below and state your feelings!_


	6. Days 19 to 23: Yoruichi's Epiphanies

Days 19 to 23: Yoruichi's Epiphanies

Yoruichi Shihoin had the impression that she was a very likable woman. Friendship was not something that had always come easily to her, however. Once, aside from her childhood friends Kisuke and Tessai, all she had in her life was sycophantic faux-friendship, suitors and sycophants looking for some favor or other, seeing in her an opportunity for social advancement or, at worst, a cheap sexual thrill.

Now, however, it was her joy to have honest friendships with most of the people she knew, especially in the time since she had abandoned Soul Society and abandoned her legacy, losing the privileges that had lured in the sycophants. She was always able to acquire her true friends honestly, never having to try particularly hard, never having to be something she wasn't, she simply was who she was, and that was enough for most people, and she owed that true popularity to one person.

In the past, her Little Bee had been special even amongst her friends, being more formative to the woman Yoruichi had become than Soi suspected. Soi Fon had been there for her in the time that she still had to deal with the sycophants, when she had to lead a two-faced life for the sake of her family name. During those times, Soi Fon had been her rock, a presence of constant support for her self-esteem, a girl who liked her for who she was as a person and not for what other people imagined her to be. The treasure that was her Little Bee's love and admiration had allowed Yoruichi to realize just what it took to be happy, to understand what separated her real friends from the fakes, and what separated the real her from the dolled-up Princess. And so over the years Yoruichi had grown more comfortable expanding her circle of friends beyond just Soi Fon, Kisuke, and Tessai, and had become a popular woman in her own right, not as the Goddess of Flash or the heir to the Shihoin, but simply as Yoruichi.

Yoruichi had returned that affection with affection, affection to disguise her unspoken gratitude to the girl that she thought would be beside her always. And so something had blossomed deep inside her, something that some would call abnormal that she had always suspected about herself, but never confirmed until she understood that she felt not only affectionate towards her Little Bee, but emotionally and physically attracted to her as well. Yoruichi was not bothered by the fact that she was homosexual, at least not by the time she had confirmed it, because she was now filled with the confidence that her Little Bee had inspired and surrounded by other friends who would not care that she was no longer interested in doing what it took to provide a proper male heir for the Shihoin clan. Though Soi Fon did not know it, she was the reason that Yoruichi was completely comfortable in her own skin, that she was the confident, carefree woman she was today.

So now it was especially odd that while Yoruichi was so well-adjusted with people in general, her relationship with Soi Fon seemed to have collapsed altogether. Yoruichi had lost that sense of comfort that Soi Fon had once given her. She no longer felt she could be herself around Soi Fon, and in the greatest of ironies, she now seemed to feel that she had to impress her Little Bee somehow, to show her how she had changed as an individual. The new Soi Fon, the Captain of Squad Two and Commander of the Onmitsukido, was both the same and different than the Soi she had known long ago. She was a mystery to Yoruichi in a lot of ways, the first person that she felt she had to try to earn her affection.

And she was failing.

The notion that someone did not like her was not especially vexing to Yoruichi. She had a fair few enemies, mostly family members who had called her out on unbecoming conduct years before she had become an outlaw who was halfway out of the closet, but Yoruichi being who she was, she did not care that those she clearly identified as enemies did not like her. But never before had she not been able to capture someone's affections with her natural charm. She had never wanted to try, and now that she found herself wanting and trying, she was clearly doing it all wrong.

_What is wrong with me?_ This was the refrain inside Yoruichi's head. She had fled Soul Society when Soi Fon had snapped and struck her. Yoruichi had been trying so hard that day to cheer up her Little Bee, to make sure that they had an enjoyable day together, and all her efforts had merely led to Soi Fon attacking her for the first time since their bitter reunion.

She had returned to Karakura Town and spent that night in cat form, periodically napping and wandering, lost in her own perplexity. The following day, the 19th day since Kisuke had been sealed away and all of this had begun, she returned to the Urahara Shop. It was still morning, long before she was usually awake, and Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu who were now alone in the house, were already awake. Indeed Jinta and Ururu were already playing in the back yard when Yoruichi slunk back in her feline form.

"Welcome back, Yoruichi," Tessai said, greeting her at the front door. "How did everything go?"

Yoruichi did not respond immediately, but Tessai must have read something in her feline gaze, for he responded "I see. I'm sorry it didn't go better." Yoruichi remained silent, holding his gaze for a moment longer to acknowledge that she had heard him, then turned and darted silently to her room.

She arrived at her bed, curled up on its surface, and then morphed back into her hominid form, lying there naked and still curled over, as she began to cry.

The refrain of self-doubt was stronger in her head now, _What's wrong with me_? She had always assumed that it would all work out, that she could rebuild her relationship with Soi Fon and once again have her most treasured friend back in her life, and then her life would have been perfect; she would have had her friends, her freedom, and her Little Bee.

She had been overjoyed when Soi Fon had come back, believing that Soi Fon had forgiven Yoruichi for abandoning her all those years ago and had finally worked her way through all the hurt she had felt. Her joy had only grown through that first date, through seeing Soi Fon finally starting to ease her way out of her shell. Kissing her had been the perfect end to that perfect day, leaving her blushing and so delightfully embarrassed. It had all been downhill after that, however, with the perfection that Yoruichi had held in her grasp slipping away, and all because of her consistent screw-ups.

At every turn she had tried to comfort Soi Fon, to try to calm her and show her that Yoruichi cared about Soi Fon's life. Soi Fon had made it clear that she expected things to be different through the clear displeasure she expressed after Yoruichi went out drinking with Kukaku. Soi Fon had always had her criticisms of Yoruichi's less exemplary habits, but they had been gentle criticisms, never seeming to bother Soi Fon significantly. Yoruichi was aware that Soi Fon had changed in the last century, but it seemed as though she had not been aware of just how much Soi Fon had changed. But that shouldn't matter, because Soi Fon was still Soi Fon, right?

Yoruichi did not consider the possibility that this might not be her fault, that it may, in fact, have been Soi Fon's, that her Little Bee had changed irrevocably into a hateful, combative woman. She knew, with ironclad certainty, that the new Soi Fon was fundamentally the same as the old Soi Fon, but had put on a shell over the years, a mantle that made her personality quirks less obvious so that she could better undertake her responsibilities. The new Soi Fon had more world-wisdom, leadership experience, and a good deal more self-confidence and independence, but down at her core there was the same girl who wanted love, and who could give out so much empowering, unconditional affection of her own. That wellspring of unconditional compassion that had helped make Yoruichi who she was today was still in there. Yoruichi had caught glimpses of it on that first date, but it had slipped through her fingers in their subsequent time together.

Yoruichi had been forced to watch Soi Fon grow more and more uncomfortable, more and more anxious, and apparently there was nothing she could have done, or what she tried to do had made things worse. She had fled on that premise, knowing when Soi Fon had punched her that she had ruined Soi Fon's mood utterly, and she was now afraid to go back, not for fear of what Soi Fon might do to her, but of what she might do to Soi Fon, what other depths of emotional hell she might drive her to.

So she cried, the mighty Goddess of Flash feeling more helpless now than she had in many a long year. She had tried all the reasonable alternatives she could come up with, knowing that Soi Fon would not like any big, public displays. She had tried to help Soi Fon with the harder parts of her job, had tried to show her interest in Soi's day-to-day activities, had tried to simply hold her hand to give her back some measure of the comfort she had in turn been given over the years. All of them had simply caused Soi Fon further discomfort.

Yoruichi had always been gifted, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, possessing natural talents in many fields, blessed with many friends, but she was also greedy. She knew that none of her blessings would be truly complete without Soi Fon, and yet despite all of her gifts, nothing seemed to be able to get her the one thing she wanted most.

She cried for some hours in her room, softly, letting her helpless feeling of sadness drag her into sleep, where she remained until well into the mid afternoon. She awoke around 4:00, dragging herself up from her bed and attempting to do something that at least resembled normalcy. She dressed, for one, and then lumbered back into the civilized world, drawn even in her helpless depression by the scent of Tessai's immaculate cooking. She stopped before she entered the kitchen area, vigorously rubbing her eyes and nose, trying to efface the evidence of her tears. She had not cried in a long time, and she was feeling self-conscious in a way that she had not felt since around the last time she had cried. She succeeded in effacing the immediate effects of her tears, but her golden eyes betrayed her emotional state, as did her demeanor, which was entirely out of character for the Yoruichi that the denizens of the Urahara Shop knew.

And it was clear that they did know something was wrong. Not just Tessai, a man of strong intuition who had clearly derived most of what was going on all on his own, but the children as well. Jinta stared rather blatantly and rudely at her through most of the meal, though a cross glare or two from Tessai was enough to keep the hotheaded boy from making any direct inquires towards Yoruichi. Ururu stared as well, though more discretely. Neither could remember a time when Yoruichi had anything but casually detached or vaguely chipper. The dinner passed in orderly silence, and thus incredibly out of the ordinary for the occupants of the shop.

Yoruichi brought the mood of the Urahara Shop down consistently over the next few days. She did not cry again, but she did not do much of anything else either. Her urgent feeling of helpless desperation faded rapidly into one of general depression, and so she spent most of the day not doing much of anything. Her feline form was of great use, because now she could sleep 16 hours of the day away in her room. In her long slumber, at least, the time could wear on. Time had healed her of her one loneliness before. She hoped that, once again, she could allow the long months and years to dull the pain.

It would not be hard, she had many other friends and acquaintances aside from Soi Fon, and even if the one she wanted could not be a large part of her life, she would still encounter her Little Bee from time to time, much like the stunted relationship that had existed between them since their reunion. Perhaps that more distant relationship was meant to be the new normal.

That depressed her more than anything else.

On the first full day of her depression, Tessai tried to better the situation. He took Yoruichi aside after she woke up on the second day. "So if it is no longer necessary, would you like me to release Kisuke?" while he had been friends with Yoruichi for almost as long as Kisuke had, he knew that the eccentric man had a more solid grasp on the intricacies of Yoruichi's personality, and would be better able to console her in what was clearly his friend's most trying time in a long while.

"You could do that?" Yoruichi asked.

"I was Usshoda-san's superior back in the day," Tessai replied. "If he can do something, I can undo it. Or we could ask Hachi to do it himself."

"I don't want to bother anyone else with my problems," Yoruichi said simply.

"Including me?" Tessai returned.

"I just don't want to," Yoruichi said, no emotion in her voice. She left out the reason. She knew from a secondhand account that Soi Fon had earned Kisuke's imprisonment through her struggles on the battlefield of the Winter War, suffering temporary loss of limb, and she did not want to deprive Soi of her reward even if it was no use to either of them at this point.

"Very well," Tessai said, letting the matter drop for the time being.

But recovery from her depression was slow in coming for Yoruichi. She moped around the Urahara Shop and the surrounding vicinity through day 20 and 21, spending most of the time sleeping and even most of her waking time doing inscrutable cat-things, emerging as a human only for meals with the other shop residents, but this only increased the awkward tension that was growing between herself and her cohabitants.

It came to a head on day 22, when Yoruichi awoke in time for lunch. She walked listlessly into the kitchen area, but found no food waiting for her. Instead, Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu were seated around the table, awaiting her. "So what is this about?" Yoruichi said, indicating her awareness that something was amiss without sounding particularly interested.

"Intervention," Ururu said concisely.

"You're being way too depressing!" Jinta added, pointing at her accusingly. "And we're not going to put up with it anymore!"

"So what will you do about it?" Yoruichi said, just a hint of annoyance trickling into her voice.

"It's not what we'll do, it's what you'll do," Tessai said. "I'm not going to pretend to understand exactly what went wrong between you and Soi Fon, but moping around here all the time isn't doing anyone any good."

"We don't know where you're going, but you can't stay here," Ururu added in her soft, ever-neutral tone.

"And kicking me out is supposed to help me?" Yoruichi asked, though she once again sounded listless.

"Don't misunderstand," Tessai said. "We're not being unsympathetic. But you clearly need to get out of the house to clear your head. Travel, think, take the time you need to get over this, but this is for your own good." Jinta nodded emphatically in agreement.

"Whatever," Yoruichi replied, in no mood to argue in her current state, allowing herself in her emotional void to be nudged along in whichever direction others wanted her to go in.

Yoruichi left, taking on her feline form and wandering out into Karakura Town. Tessai and the others were not wrong to assume that some time out of the house would help her. Yoruichi had indeed found her previous trips around the world to have a certain healing property. Seeing many people, making new friends, even a casual fling or two to explore her newfound sexuality, had helped to soothe the pain of missing Soi Fon.

But it was not time for her to go on such a journey. As strange as it was, Yoruichi did not want to get over it just yet. For now, she wanted to wallow in her own self-pity, so she decided not to go on a trip around the world. She decided not to go far at all, but merely to better explore the city that had been her home for a hundred years, but that she had never really gotten to know.

The black cat wandered through Karakura Town. It made an attempt at people watching, but was shooed off by a particularly irate storekeeper with a broom. That was for the better, because she was not interested in people watching, because she knew that there was no chance of her seeing the one person she most wanted to see. For a moment, she missed even the pathetic relationship they had had since the reunion. She wondered if she could just go back to that; a quick trip through the Senkaimon, a quick apology, and she could have that awkwardness back, but at least it would be normal, at least Soi Fon would be back.

The black cat knew that it could not do that, that going back now would be a greedy thing, an effort on the black cat's part to steal more peace of mind at her Little Bee's expense, giving the bee yet more emotional pain.

As the black cat wandered and the afternoon wore on to evening, she realized that that was the whole problem. In trying to help her Little Bee, Yoruichi was just trying to help herself. Her seemingly unselfish gestures were really efforts to make her feel better about herself. She wanted Soi Fon back into her life for the happiness Soi Fon gave her, and not so that she could give Soi Fon any more happiness. That made her transgressions all the worse. This is why everything she did for Soi Fon only made things worse: she was not doing them for Soi Fon. This only deepened her depression.

As night descended on the town, she knew one thing; she needed a drink.

~~0000~~

The old bartender had seen a lot of things in her life. She had started out a simple barmaid, who through her eye for interior design had won the praise of the bar's former owner, and it had been passed on to her. She had married a patron and, after a happy marriage, had laid him to rest, but she kept on tending her bar. She had thought she had seen anything and everything that could possibly happen in an establishment dedicated to the consumption of alcohol.

Clearly she had been wrong. The black cat had slipped in through the door. After it pointedly ignored her requests for it to leave, it leapt up on the bar and approached one of the patrons' sake bowls. When the patron protested and tried to shoo the black cat away, it hissed viciously and scratched the patron. Angry attempts by all the patrons at the bar and the bartender to grab the black cat ended with the black cat dodging with unthinkable speed and with everyone nursing a small scratch or other. Now thoroughly afraid of the black cat, the patrons asked the bartender to call Animal Control, which she did. While they waited, the black cat drank the sake out of the bowls, lapping it up as if it were cream. It had drained two bowls and was most of the way through the third when the Animal Control officers arrived. At this point the black cat was far too inebriated to repeat its masterful efforts of elusion, and it was captured neatly.

The black cat cried for a time in the back of the Animal Control van, its loud meows indicating its distress, but eventually the black cat fell asleep.

~~0000~~

Yoruichi came to slowly. There was a crushing pain in her temples that, for the moment, allowed her to forget other pains she might be feeling, pains that she deserved to feel.

Memories of her pre-blackout activities emerged. She had sought solace the only place she thought possible, at the bottom of a bottle, or in this case, a small bowl. She should have known better, but at the same time she really hadn't had anywhere better to go. She did not wish to go back to Soul Society quite yet, Kisuke was still sealed away, and her other friends on this side of the line would not be of much assistance. Kurosaki and his friends were good kids and all, but they were just that; kids, and not the kind of people who could really provide constructive advice if she poured her heart out to them. She had sought instead to bury her feelings, a somewhat more self-destructive approach to her depression than simply sleeping 16 hours a day, but with the ultimate effect of putting her emotional healing off for later.

Her epiphany of earlier that day (_wait, is it still that day? When is it?_) had aggravated her depression, knowing now how selfish she really was, how inconsiderate she had been. She wanted to forget or deny that possibility, but it beat into her as surely as her own throbbing temples did.

A few other oddities came to light. She was laid out on her back, on some sort of mattress. Above her, through her closed eyes, she could sense the light of day. She opened her eyes slowly and sat up. A brief sense of zero-gravity hit her, as well as a slight wave of nausea, but she forced them down and took a good look at her surroundings. There was an unfettered blue sky above her, but no feeling of wind or moving air. Wait, who had come to take her away from that bar? How was she transformed back into a human? Had Tessai and the kids rescued her?

She brushed at her head, wishing only for the cessation of the pain, when one of the questions was answered.

"Yo, Yoruichi," came a voice, followed by the arrival of Shinji Hirako. The man with the bowl-cut blonde hair and his creepy perpetual grin approached her. "Did you have a beautiful sleep?"

"If being run over by a truck makes you feel beautiful," Yoruichi said, rubbing her head. That answered a few questions. She was in the underground training room that Kisuke had installed for the Visoreds, which is why she wasn't quite as familiar with the landscape.

"Oh, right, they did say you were captured at a bar," Shinji replied. "Here," he said, placing two hands on her temples. A soft green light was emitted, and suddenly Yoruichi felt much better.

"What was that?"

"If you live with one of the Kido Corps top experts for a hundred years, you pick up a few tricks," Shinji said. "Definitely helps with someone like Hiyori around."

"I bet," Yoruichi said, smiling for the first time in quite a few days. With friends once again, things did not seem quite so dark.

"Would you like some lunch?" Shinji offered. "It's just about time."

_Crap. Lunch, what day is it?_ Yoruichi thought.

"It's Tuesday," Shinji said, seemingly reading her thoughts.

Yoruichi took a moment to work it out in her head. That meant it was day 23 since Kisuke had been sealed away. That also meant she had blacked out early last night…

"Some food in your stomach will pick you up," Shinji said. "Maybe I can put on some coffee," he added.

"No, don't put yourself out," Yoruichi said as they began walking through the training room towards a very tall ladder. The ladder was rather pointless, as all denizens of the Visored home and most of their guests knew shunpo, and Yoruichi and Shinji demonstrated its pointlessness, shunpoing up and into the warehouse that the Visoreds made their home. Their home was actually below the warehouse, in a layer between it and the vast training chamber below, a series of rooms and living spaces crafted with Kisuke's help a century before. Yoruichi smelled food somewhere in the suite, and Shinji led her to the source of that smell. A small kitchen, not unlike the one back in the Urahara Shop, with a low table in the room where Hiyori Sarugaki and Hachigen Ushoda currently sat. Lisa Yadomaru was there as well, sitting off to one side and engrossed in a manga. Hachi, the one that had started this whole affair, was currently laying omelets on the table.

"So is it a requirement to be able to cook if you want to be in the Kido Corps?" Yoruichi asked. She had lived off of Tessai's cooking off and on for a century, after all.

"It is a requirement to be responsible," Hachi joked. "I did not know how to cook when we arrived here, but somebody had to learn. Hirako-san or Sarugaki-san certainly weren't going to do it."  
>Yoruichi laughed again, feeling more liberated by the moment.<p>

"Hey!" Hiyori shouted, "I can totally be responsible! I'm the only reason she's here, aren't I?"

"So you're the one who rescued me from Animal Control?" she said, smiling down at the small, angry woman.

"You're lucky she has a crush on the 11:00 news guy," Shinji said, smiling a veritable Cheshire grin.

"Shut up!" Hiyori yowled, launching herself over the low table and kicking Shinji solidly in the chest, causing him to fly to the far end of the kitchen.

"Anyway…" Shinji said, getting up slowly. "Why were you drinking at that bar as a cat? That's a little strange, even for you."

"I just wanted to try something new," Yoruichi said, but her smile visibly fell and her attempt at a joke came off lamely.

"Without Soi Fon?" Hiyori asked pointedly. "I thought that was still going ow!" Shinji hit her soundly on the head and pressed her down towards the floor.

"It doesn't seem like she wants to spend time with me," Yoruichi said, not wanting to have this conversation but at the same time feeling comfortable enough to ease into it.

"Huh? But you two have been in love for well over a hundred years!" Hiyori grunted as she tried to stand up against the force of Shinji who was still trying to push her down.

"Look who's talking," Shinji said, grunting as well with the force of trying to keep Hiyori repressed. "I'm the one who had to tell you that!"

"In love…" Yoruichi repeated, "Soi Fon's just a friend."

"What, you're not a lesbian?" Hiyori asked, managing to get free from Shinji's grip and give him a stern roundhouse kick that again sent him flying. Then she found herself trapped in a bubble.

"That's very rude, Hiyori," Hachi said as Hiyori screamed soundlessly in the sealed-off space. "You can't be cavalier about people's sexual orientations."

"It's fine," Yoruichi said. Hachi nodded and released Hiyori. "I am a lesbian," she added, "and Soi Fon is too."

"No surprise there," Shinji said as he managed to pick himself up and rejoin the conversation.

"So what, she's not your type?" Hiyori asked.

"No, I'm attracted to her," Yoruichi said, blushing a little, "and I'm fairly certain she's attracted to me. We enjoy spending time together, and she's a great friend, but we're not in love."

"What the hell does that mean?" Hiyori barked. "Isn't that what love is?"

"Aren't you a little young to know what love is?" Shinji asked. Hiyori growled like an agitated dog, but it was Lisa who responded.

"Love is the one person whom you know you belong with, body and soul."

Hiyori snickered, and for that got another smack on the head. She and Shinji then began to fight uproariously. Hachi cast another barrier Kido, allowing them to fight without disturbing the others. "Please, continue," Hachi said kindly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Yoruichi said. She had never heard Love defined in such a way.

"You need to read more," Lisa said coolly as she continued to thumb through her manga, a book called _Kokoro o Mamotte_. "This is like Romance Manga 101."

"I've read manga before, but I always skipped over the lovey-dovey crap," Yoruichi said.

"Well then you can just suffer," Lisa said conclusively.

"Lisa…" Hachi reprimanded.

"Fine," Lisa said. "Take this manga for instance. The heroine spent all sorts of time looking for her one true love, putting herself through hell, before she ends up with her middle-school friend, the one who had been there for her the whole time."

"Sounds cliché," Yoruichi said.

"Yeah, totally," Lisa replied, "but the theme is there. Sounds to me like Soi Fon's always been there with you, at least as long as you've been there for her."

Yoruichi frowned. "Exactly. What kind of person abandons the person they love?"

"Kokoro o Mamotte, volume 3 chapter 22," Lisa said. "The heroine had been gone all summer, following this one boyfriend's band around on tour. She returned, and the main love interest was still there, waiting patiently. Sure he was hurt, but his loyalty did not fray."

Yoruichi paused for a moment, Lisa's advice running through her head. "But isn't that hard?" she finally asked. "Isn't love kind of a burden? What's wrong with "friends with benefits?"

"Love is the only burden whose weight strengthens the bearer, and does not weaken them."

Yoruichi raised her eyebrow at Lisa.

"Kokoro o Mamotte, volume 5 chapter 8," Lisa said.

Yoruichi sat for a second longer, contemplative as it all began to click together in her head. Yoruichi then stood up suddenly. "I should get going," she said.

"Yoruichi-san," Hachi's voice came after her as she left the kitchen. She turned to look at him. "Whatever you do, try to make my efforts here worthwhile."

"Right…" Yoruichi said. "Thank you."

Lisa scowled as Yoruichi left. Thank him. I was the one who fixed this mess… oh well, and she continued reading her romance manga.

~~0000~~

Yoruichi spent a bit more time wandering around Karakura Town as a cat after that, as high noon slid slightly into the afternoon, but not much time elapsed as she continued turning over Lisa's words in her mind.

_A burden that does not weaken the bearer…_ Yoruichi had never really known what love was. This is not to say that she had lived a life without affection, of course. She had many friends and could claim to have lived a happy life on the whole, being satisfied with her achievement, but her perception of love had been skewed to the point where she denied its utility, or believed the idea to be a fabrication.

It had started with her upbringing, certainly. Her mother and father had never been particularly happy together, her mother being the last daughter of some noble clan that had failed to produce viable male heirs, driven to the arms of the Shihoin patriarch as a guarantee that her family legacy would go somewhere meaningful. They tolerated each other, at least, and Yoruichi had never really sensed any hostility between them, but at the same time she had seen them both calling their relationship "Love," when really it was a shrewd political move, beneficial to both, but not particularly special.

The endless suitors had further distorted her view of the matter. Each one of them wanted money, or sex, or both. She gathered from them that they "loved" her because she was both sexually desirable and someone they would enjoy living with (due to the money, the prestige, and possibly their liking for the fake personality Yoruichi donned when dealing with the suitors). Again she saw this notion of romantic attachment is one that was fundamentally burdensome.

Yoruichi saw the two ideals that came together for "love" as things that were separate. She had her friends, her dear friends, and then she had those she was sexually attracted to. In Soi Fon, those two elements happened to collide, but the ideal relationship she pursued with Soi Fon would have been what is called "Friends with benefits," rather than any sort of commitment. Commitment was farcical in her mind. Friendship was loyalty enough, and sex was just sex. This is not to say she was at all promiscuous or even that she had a lot of sex, but simply that she did not attach more emotional baggage to the act than the act itself

She had entertained the idea that Soi Fon was in love with her, but Yoruichi's plan, such as it was, had been to wean Soi Fon off the idea. "Love," in this case, would only have been a figment of Soi Fon's old adoration for her, but she could normalize her relationship with Soi Fon by getting rid of Soi's awkward devotion. Then ease her into the concept of physical intimacy, and Yoruichi would have gained her "friends with benefits" ideal.

She had been wrong, about all of it.

For the first time in all her years, Yoruichi felt like a fool. She thought that Soi Fon's devotion, the way her Little Bee had always seemed so anxious around her, was a bad thing. Yoruichi had been staring love in the blushing face in all the time she had spent with Soi Fon recently, and had not seen it for what it was. _Idiot._

And her idiocy had caused pain. In denying her share of the burden, in ignoring the burden borne by her Little Bee, Yoruichi had caused Soi Fon true pain. In her pain, Soi Fon had lashed out at her, just like she had before, in the pain she had borne for a hundred years. And while Yoruichi knew that Soi Fon at least had some of the blame for not making her intentions clearer, she knew that she should have known better than that. Yoruichi had always been more in touch than Soi Fon, and she should have been more in touch then, and prevented their fight. Now it all made sense, Yorouichi realized, a second epiphany much clearer than the first. She had indeed been selfish in her conduct with Soi Fon, but now she truly understood why.

The black cat, realizing there was only one way it could hope to fix all of this, dashed off in search of a portal.

~~0000~~

As Yoruichi prostrated herself before Soi Fon, meeting the girl in the Precipice World, she thought of a few things. The first was that it was almost miraculous that she had been able to encounter Soi Fon midway through the Precipice World like that, as she had assumed that the Precipice World did not work that way. The second was that she thought it was ironic that after all the times Soi Fon had placed her chin in the dirt in front of Yoruichi, now their positions were reversed. She could not see Soi Fon from her position, but she imagined the shock on her face.

These thoughts flew through her mind in only a moment, however, as Yoruichi focused solely on her mission.

"Yoruichi-sama, I…" Soi Fon began, but Yoruichi stopped her.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm so sorry, Soi Fon. I've been so stupid." Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, but she beat them down. "You've been in love with me, and I've neglected the sincerity of your feelings."

She looked up at her Little Bee, seeing even in the poor light of the Precipice World that she was blushing. Yoruichi smiled in spite of herself, and yet her tears also began to flow.

"Well I love you too, Shaolin Fon."

**Author's Note:** _whoops, this one took longer than it should have. Combination of school and the fact that I really had to come up with Yoruichi's characterization from scratch, since I've been kinda vague about her motivations throughout the story so far. Also it was harder to come up with who would help her through this, since I discarded Ichigo and friends for reasons Yoruichi mentioned, so it was a tougher plot to conceive of._

_The conclusion's up next! Click the button down there and review!_


	7. Days 24 to 28: The New Normal

Days 24 to 28: The New Normal

Soi Fon snapped awake suddenly, as if called by a starters' gun that only she could hear. The veteran warrior's mind felt an odd disquiet, knowing that something very important had caused her to lose consciousness, but not yet knowing exactly what. She sat up and began an assessment of the situation.

_Okay, I'm in my bed, in my quarters, and I'm… fully dressed in my haori?_

"Finally awake, Soi Fon?"

"Yeah," Soi Fon said. She looked to her side. "Ah! Y-Yoruichi-sama!" There kneeling next to her futon was her Yoruichi-sama, fully clothed in her orange silk shirt and modified Onmitsukido uniform. Soi Fon blushed fiercely as it all came flooding back.

"You fainted," Yoruichi said, anticipating her question and smiling at her mischievously.

"I… fainted?" Soi Fon asked, blushing all the more fiercely (if that were indeed possible).

"Yeah, I must've given you quite a shock," Yoruichi said, placing an arm comfortingly around Soi's shoulders. "You dropped like a stone when I…" Yoruichi trailed off.

"When you told me you love me," Soi Fon said. Her tone was neutral and she was looking forward. The silence was deafening, with neither woman willing to say anything more for a moment.

But after all she had gone through; Soi Fon would no longer cower in her own indecision. "This is stupid," she said. Yoruichi tensed momentarily, fear leaping in her chest. "If we both love each other, we shouldn't be wasting any time being awkward."

"So you do love me?" Yoruichi asked, her momentary tension vanishing like smoke in the wind.

"As far as I know what love is," Soi Fon replied.

"Now who's the one being awkward?" Yoruichi teased.

"Why did you bring me back here?" Soi Fon asked.

"The Cleaner came soon after you fainted," Yoruichi replied. "This is the direction it chased us in."

"What time is it?" Soi continued in an analytical line of questioning.

"Just after sunrise," Yoruichi said, "it's the 24th day since Kisuke was sealed away."

Soi Fon suddenly stiffened. "How, how did you…?"

"Don't worry about it," Yoruichi said. "I thought it was sweet that you made the deal. Even in the midst of the Winter War, you were thinking about me. And now you know that Kisuke was no competition. No-one ever was."

Soi Fon and Yoruichi smiled at one another, then Yoruichi yawned broadly. "Man I'm tired."

"It is a little early for you to be up," Soi Fon said.

"A little late, you mean," Yoruichi said. "I haven't gone to bed since you passed out." An odd expression came over her face. "I didn't want to wake you. I was worried… about what you would say when you got up. I thought you wouldn't forgive me for what I've done…" she sniffled suddenly, her voice creaking a little.

"Enough," Soi Fon said sternly, though she was smiling. "You shouldn't feel guilty. I already said, we're not going to be spending any time being awkward. Besides, this was all my fault, and you never gave me a chance to apologize."

"Let's just say we're both to blame," Yoruichi said. "We can be equals."

"But now… Yoruichi-sama…" Soi Fon mumbled.

"Yes?" Yoruichi said. Her eyelids were drooping and she was badly in need of sleep.

"Where do we go from here?"

"Here?" Yoruichi asked, as if contemplating the meaning of the word. "Counting today, you've got five days left, Soi-chan." She smiled. "Weren't you going to make me your girlfriend?"

"But I thought…"

"Well, yes, but the Precipice World is no place to confess to a girl," Yoruichi said, her smile growing yet more teasing, but then drew back to sincerity. "I know if I make you try, I'll see something really special." She yawned broadly again. "But first I need some shut-eye."

"You remember where the guest quarters are, right?" Soi Fon asked.

"Yeah, but I'll be comfy right here," Yoruichi said. In a puff of smoke, the black cat was back, and Yoruichi curled up and soon was fast asleep.

~~0000~~

Soi Fon went about her morning as Yoruichi slept, pondering this new turn of events.

_We can be equals._ She knew that was ultimately what she had been looking for, for a romantic relationship could not function if the partners were not at least nominally on equal footing, but it was a strange idea. _Being equal with Yoruichi-sama._ Her goal was no longer to surpass Yoruichi, but to join her, to be one with the woman who had been so out of reach all her life, and this was what she now looked forward to.

It should have been a terrifying prospect, but strangely Soi Fon did not seem to mind. Meeting Yoruichi-sama there in the Precipice World and hearing her say those words had been cathartic, liberating, and the weight of a lifetime's worth of anxiety seemed to be draining out of Soi Fon, leaving her feeling strangely empty.

She knew she should still be anxious, of course. First she would have to face the consequences for running off yesterday afternoon, leaving a recently-recovered Omaeda to run the squad for half a day unaided, however minor those consequences might be. Secondly, Yoruichi expected something romantic out of her now, something that she had a scant five days to plan, at least half of which she could expect to lose to her current Captain-duties.

Granted, she was still in the original span of time she had accounted for: her original plans had been built with a leave of absence covering the whole four weeks in mind, but Omaeda's incapacitation and the subsequent events had disrupted the flow of routine for Squad Two and the Onmitsukido, such that even with Omaeda back, they would be in need of her leadership.

So it was that Soi Fon seemed to be caught between her two obligations, between her Captaincy and her Yoruichi-sama, but she was not worried. Now she knew, Yoruichi was here for her, here with her, and not someone she would need to keep under control or worry about. At the same time, however, she wanted to rise to Yoruichi's expectations and give her as spectacular a courtship as she could in the five days she was given. There was no fear of failure, merely an honest, healthy, and unselfish desire to please her Yoruichi-sama.

But the purity of her desire did not change the fact that she did not have any ideas. The disaster of the Female Souls' Festival was fresh in her mind, and although Soi Fon was now certain that such a disaster could not be repeated in its entirety. Their newfound mutual honesty would guarantee that the perfect storm of tension and anxiety that had surrounded that incident could no longer form, but at the same time Soi Fon knew in her heart that any activity like the festival just wouldn't be right at this juncture. That left her with few options, of course, because she herself had plotted for the Female Souls' Festival to be the setting for the ultimate date between her and Yoruichi, one that had encompassed many of the activities that couples normally engaged in. Maybe any of those activities would serve as another good date, but it would not be unique. Special. That was the word Yoruichi had used, and Soi Fon felt that she would know a special date when she thought of it.

Soi Fon; the meticulous planner, the tenacious strategist, had her work cut out for her.

~~0000~~

Yoruichi woke to find Soi Fon missing, her scent nowhere near, save in the latent smell that permeated her quarters. For a time the black cat contented itself in twitching its little nose, drinking in the scent that would now be with her always. Yoruichi extended her senses, however, searching further than her nose could track, but her Little Bee's reiatsu was also not to be found in the immediate vicinity. All Yoruichi could sense was the background noise of all the powerful reiatsu that dwelt around Seireitei. She was curious and, after transforming back to a human and finding some clothes for herself, began to wander around.

She soon found her answer in a note left on Soi Fon's desk in her office.

_Yoruichi-sama,  
>I apologize, but I will be engaged in providing nighttime exercises for the first squad of the Onmitsukido. Please feel free to go out or do whatever you wish.<em>

_-Soi Fon_

Yoruichi was vexed by the contents of the note. Not by the first sentence, that one had cured her earlier curiosity about Soi Fon's location, but the second one, which was a sharp turn for Soi Fon. She frowned, once again worried for her Little Bee. Knowing she was out doing exercises with one of the Onmitsukido groups narrowed down the list of possible locations considerably, however, so Yoruichi sped off to resolve this new issue.

She found her after making a broad circuit of the Rukon district. Soi Fon seemed to still prefer the Zone Three training ground, despite the fact that many of the trees that provided such good cover there had been cut down by Zaraki. Yoruichi shuddered internally at the thought, Zaraki's shenanigans had launched the incident that brought them here and had very nearly scuttled their relationship. That was where Soi Fon was stronger than her, she supposed. Soi would not let a little thing like hurt feelings change her view of objective reality, and despite the fact that this specific training ground was now tinged with bad memories for her, she continued to use it for how ideal it was for stealth-ops training. Granted, it was now less-than-ideal, but the rough terrain Zaraki had created in felling trees for fun made up for the lack of cover in some places.

It was sunset, and the west-falling sun cast many shadows among the trees, but the cat-eyed Yoruichi was able to perceive everything clearly. It was not like the last time she had intruded upon Soi Fon in the midst of her Captain's duties in a number of ways. First, Soi Fon was not standing authoritatively before well-ordered ranks of soldiers, but was rather among them, distinguishable at a distance only by her white haori amongst the persistent Onmitsukido black. She looked different among her soldiers, still authoritative, but less distant (both literally and figuratively). She seemed more at ease than she had before, though her expression was inscrutable as she went about. She seemed to be organizing the first squad of the Onmitsukido into smaller squads still, preparing for some sort of team exercise. Omaeda was there as well, the large man less distinct in color, though with a somewhat fuller figure than anyone else present.

Yoruichi was not sure how to approach from here. Her one concern prompted her to act, but at the same time she did not want to repeat her previous error of intruding upon Soi Fon's duties. The old Yoruichi would merely have barged in, taking advantage of the fact that she knew Soi Fon would never ignore her. But she wished to act with more tact this time, though she still could not resist her innate urge to make an entrance.

With the distinctive flicker of shunpo, Yoruichi appeared immediately in front of Soi Fon as she was walking in between the two teams she had organized from among her troops.

"Yoruichi!" Soi Fon exclaimed. Yoruichi was pleased by her response, both for the surprised expression on her Little Bee that she would never grow tired of, and for the fact that she seemed to have finally dropped that damned honorific.

"Yo, Soi Fon," Yoruichi said, smiling. "Sorry, but, do you have a sec?"

"Sure…" Soi Fon said hesitantly. "Omaeda!" she snapped.

"Yes, Captain!" Omaeda said, turning his attention towards both groups of Onmitsukido operatives. Despite how much she put him down, Soi Fon seemed to have trained him into a fairly competent administrator in his own right. The two women shunpoed off into the forest, out of earshot of the others.

"What do you want?" Soi Fon asked. Her tone sounded friendly.

"What do you mean by this?" Yoruichi returned her question with a question, then presented her with the note.

"What do you mean?" Soi Fon said, continuing the chain of questions.

"I remember how awkward it made things between us when I went out with Kukaku that one night," Yoruichi said. "If you don't want me to be going out, why are you letting me?"

"Is there a point in here?" Soi Fon asked.

"What I mean is, I don't want you to be just letting me do whatever I want, if that's not what you want." _Damn,_ Yoruichi thought, _who would have thought I would ever say something like that?_ "I'm not going to be selfish like that anymore."

"I have my duties," Soi Fon replied. "But as you once said, you were never that thrilled by leadership. I don't want to bore you, so I did not wish to impose. Are we really having this conversation?"

Yoruichi was taken aback by Soi Fon's brusque, honest reply. Her Little Bee had not been this businesslike around her in a very long time. Yes, Yoruichi was taken aback, but in a good way. "Mostly it was the paperwork and administrative junk that I hated," she said, smiling. "But this, this looks like fun. You could have at least asked me to come with."

"I did not wish to wake you," Soi Fon said, smiling in return. "But your help would be appreciated. We could finally have even teams," she said, her smile growing competitive and predatory.

"Then bring it on," Yoruichi said, a haughty smile growing on her face as well.

They suddenly returned to where the troops were gathered. "Good news, everyone," Soi Fon said. "Lady Yoruichi Shihoin is joining us for this exercise, so we shall finally be able to do this with evenly-matched squads." She approached her Lieutenant. "Omaeda, you're out."

Omaeda did not respond, but something that sounded like relief could be heard, and he quickly scampered off.

"All right, Lady Yoruichi goes with B-team. I'll join with A-team as planned." Yoruichi ran over to the other group, an eager smile on her face. As the sun completed setting, falling behind the western horizon, Soi Fon cast her arm downward. "Start!"

~~0000~~

The game started off fast. With 100 Shinigami in the Onmitsukido first squad all told, a solid 30 of them were eliminated within the first four minutes. The goal of the game was similar to most team exercises: eliminate the competition. This was achieved either by immobilizing them or knocking them out. Flashy tactics were forbidden, however, as well as the use of blades or projectiles, to minimize potential casualties. The worse that could result from these exercises was a few broken bones, and the Onmitsukido was disciplined enough that its members would not disobey their directives. The troops all bore compact lengths of rope and strong handcuffs to make the immobilization option more viable.

Soi Fon's team led a high-speed offensive in those first minutes, taking 12 foes in the sudden assault, but in under a minute Yoruichi's team had reacted and began a carefully-organized (but still very rapid) retreat away from the perimeter Soi Fon's team had established. Yoruichi succeeded in baiting many of her Little Bee's troops well into her perimeter, surrounding them and taking another 18 troops out.

And so they danced, Soi Fon playing aggressively and trying to keep Yoruichi from having any time to develop a truly effective strategy. Soi Fon knew Yoruichi played very intelligently on the fly, so she knew she had to be faster still. For a time, she forgot all her concerns, all her little plans and schemes, putting the whole of her mental energy into foiling Yoruichi.

It was not like the last time they had competed, when so much emotional tension had existed between them. Now Soi Fon was free to really compete with Yoruichi, to play and have fun with her in a way that was truly liberating. This showed that her mental energy was not entirely occupied, and somewhere between all the neurons that were firing for the sole purpose of outwitting Yoruichi, a germ of an idea sprouted unrelated to the current engagement.

Yoruichi was enjoying herself just as thoroughly. She knew Soi Fon was playing to win and to win quickly, so Yoruichi adapted her tactics, wanting to prolong the game and wanting to tease Soi Fon in the midst of the competition. Thus Yoruichi played very conservatively, directing her Onmitsukido operatives to run and avoid capture in lieu of actively pursuing their foes. Yoruichi was also having an inordinate amount of fun competing with Soi Fon. Soi had always been fun to play with in this manner, her Little Bee being the one person who seemed to really have completely absorbed Yoruichi's philosophies in strategy and tactics, the one person who could give her mind a workout as well as her body. When she fought others it was crude and violent, but in engaging Soi Fon, it felt more like an intricate dance. This was just the kind of fun she had been seeking when Soi Fon had sealed Kisuke away.

The game ground on. The initiative belonged to Soi Fon, mostly because the defensive tactics she had chosen to employ were ill-suited for the clash of two groups with equal training. If all her troops had held her level of experience, they would perhaps have been able to frustrate the troops on offense and wear them down more effectively, but as it was Soi Fon's side seemed to be too well-coordinated for all that. That being said, the tally was close, but slowly Yoruichi's group was worn down, until the Goddess of Flash stood alone.

Yoruichi zipped around, faster than the eye could see and faster than most others could even hope to track. Her team was decimated, but it seemed as though Soi Fon had only two working with her. Her golden eyes fixed upon her first target, and, swift and catlike, she struck; a precision chop to the back of the neck felling the black-clad Onmitsukido operative, who fell to the forest floor soundlessly. Reaching down, Yoruichi withdrew the length of rope from the felled operative's belt, then zipped over to the second, fainter reiatsu signature. She had just managed to knock him over and bind his arms when she heard another noise behind her.

"Stand down," came a voice, cold and arrogant and Yoruichi's favorite voice in all the world. Yoruichi felt warm breath on the back of her neck, sending pleasant shivers down her spine. "I've got you."

"Oh really?" Yoruichi replied, an ear-to-ear grin splitting her face. Yoruichi turned and caught Soi Fon's hand, flipping her Little Bee right over her hip in one of the most basic jujitsu moves, and once again the two women found themselves in a grappling contest. They rolled all over the forest floor in the darkness, kicking up dead leaves and bracken. Their contest was fierce, with neither woman able to gain a distinct advantage, until one little break in the action…

Soi Fon ended up on top of Yoruichi, all too aware of how she pressed into something soft and warm beneath her. This stopped her dead in her tracks as Yoruichi grinned up at her mortified expression. "Tie game?" Yoruichi proposed up at the fiercely blushing woman.

"Tie," Soi Fon conceded. The two helped one another up, with the two sweaty, disheveled women ending up in a loose embrace.

"Good game, Soi Fon," Yoruichi said, her voice soft and sweet.

"Yes," Soi Fon said, "this was a good exercise."

~~0000~~

After sorting out the casualties, Yoruichi and Soi Fon returned to the Soi's quarters. It was now well after dark, and the women were quite filthy from their engagement. "Ugh," Yoruichi groaned, casting herself down on the only chair in Soi's spartanly-furnished apartment, "I need a bath. You in?"

That delightful redness began to spread over Soi Fon's cheeks, "you go ahead, Yoruichi-sama," she said, a slight tremble in her voice.

"Come on," Yoruichi chided, "what are you, straight?"

Soi Fon stared at her.

"That joke would have killed in the World of the Living," Yoruichi added. "But come on, you're pretty filthy too. Take a bath with me," there was an undertone in her voice that prevented Soi Fon from refusing.

"O…okay…" she breathed.

Yoruichi led the way, remembering Soi Fon's quarters well, since they had once been hers. Quicker than Soi Fon could track, she stripped out of her damaged Onmitsukido uniform and covered herself in a towel, then stepped through the door into the steamy abyss. Soi Fon followed more slowly. Today had been such an emotional rollercoaster, and this was not the first time that her heart had throbbed in her chest. Emotions made you weak. That had been one of her life's most enduring maxims, or at least it had been until now. The strong emotions she had felt throughout this day were different than the anxiety that had dogged her for so long, emotions both more potent and yet more empowering.

She might have feared her beating heart. She might have feared the feelings that would spring up in her upon seeing Yoruichi's naked body immersed in the steaming water, but her resolved had hardened and she was now determined to take Yoruichi, in spite of the feelings that she had once feared. And if she could grow to accommodate these emotions, she would grow stronger still, with her Yoruichi-sama at her side. With this in mind, Soi Fon resolutely stripped down, grabbed a towel, and headed in after her.

What she found was anticlimactic. Yoruichi had already immersed herself in the water, so that there was really nothing to see aside from the Princess' head and shoulders. With resolution, Soi Fon cast off her towel and stepped into the water.

"Not bad," Yoruichi said, "not bad at all."

Soi Fon was grateful for the hot water, which reddened her skin to hide her blush.

"I mean, when did you install this kickass onsen?" Yoruichi continued. "It's not like you to splurge on, well, anything."

Soi Fon breathed an inaudible sigh of relief, so that's what she was referring to. "It's my one indulgence," she said. "And it seemed easy enough to accomplish after I requested heated floors be installed across the entire complex."

"Well, it's _amazing_," Yoruichi said. "I could totally take over Squad Two again if I knew I could live in a place like this." She laughed.

"Not if you're unable to beat me in a simple training exercise," Soi Fon replied.

"Maybe I just didn't have the right incentive," Yoruichi fired back. "If I had known something like this was one the line, then you would have seen something." Both women fondly smiled at one another through the steam.

They bathed silently for a time after that, simply enjoying the feeling of the warm water. _This is nice_, Soi Fon thought to herself. There was nothing to be afraid of, no reason to fear bathing with Yoruichi. There was nothing to fear about life with Yoruichi at all, just a nice, normal existence; getting assistance with her Captain's duties when she desired it, spending private time together; a nice normal life. She had yet to address the growing physical attraction she felt towards the naked woman bathing on the other side of the onsen, but that would be a part of this new normal life as well. Soi Fon had never really explored her sexual desires before, but she instinctively knew that there would be nothing to fear on that front either.

As she bathed, contemplating her acceptance of what a life with her Yoruichi-sama would entail, an idea that had come to her earlier came back to the fore. _Now this is special._

"So what's the sneaky smile for, Soi Fon?" Yoruichi asked.

"Oh, nothing," Soi Fon replied.

~~0000~~

The following days settled into harmonious rhythm, much as they had before. Soi Fon accomplished most of her more mundane Captain's duties for the day while Yoruichi slept in, then the two of them worked together on late-day exercises for Squad Two and the Onmitsukido, and finally spent their evenings quietly, in happy private time. It was dull, but it was fun, the soothing medication of routine being supplemented by the joy of budding love.

And though Yoruichi found herself enjoying those days, her joy was incomplete. The new routine was fun, of course, but she found herself disappointed. Yoruichi had not lied when she said she was looking forward to something truly special, and that was the one thing that seemed to be lacking over the next couple of days: no special, just normal.

Well, bathing with her Little Bee wasn't normal, but it might as well be. She had been unable to catch more than a few glimpses of Soi Fon's toned, naked body, but it was enough to excite her. While Soi had seen her naked a few times over the years, the reverse was far less true, and Soi Fon had developed beautifully since the last time Yoruichi had been able to take a peek. But Yoruichi was not going to advance on Soi Fon in that way, at least not until she got the proper of confession of love that she wanted to hear. So in the meantime she would have to content herself with sneaking a peek, and worrying about the spectacular confession that she knew had to be forthcoming.

Days 25, 26, and 27 passed in this way, with Yoruichi enjoying every moment of her new life with her Little Bee, despite her worry that grew as the clock ticked forward inevitably to the point when Kisuke would be released. This is not to say that Kisuke's release would have any impact on the progression of their relationship (except that she would have to comb the Urahara Shop for hidden cameras any time Soi Fon came to stay over), but the end of the 28th day should, as Soi Fon had originally planned, coincide with the two of them becoming bonded as girlfriends. Perhaps Soi Fon had simply given up, taking the current open atmosphere and free association between the two of them as victory enough, and would make no grand show of her love for Yoruichi.

No. There was no chance of that.

But despite the fact that Yoruichi knew that Soi Fon could not have given up at this venture, she was worried. If it were any other issue, she would have given voice to it, now knowing full well that honesty was the only policy when it came to her relationship with Soi Fon, but above all Yoruichi had hoped to be surprised in this case. So she waited, even though it was now the last day before Kisuke would come back.

Day 28 passed quickly for the Goddess of Flash. In spite of her slight anxiety, she still slept in through a good chunk of the day, waking up a little after noon. After dressing and getting a meal, she went out to greet Soi Fon.

She met her in one of the training courtyards for Squad Two, walking among pairs of Shinigami that were squaring off with their zanpakuto drawn, critiquing their stances. Yoruichi zipped up to her, waiting for Soi Fon to finish addressing one pair of Shinigami before she spoke.

"Hey, Soi Fon," Yoruichi said.

"Finally up, huh?" Soi Fon said.

"Otherwise I wouldn't be here to talk to you," Yoruichi said, having gotten used to Soi Fon's brusque wit. "So what's the plan for today?" she asked, innocent and cautious.

"Nothing special," Soi Fon replied. "Have to get my Squad to GET THEIR SWORD TECHNIQUE UP TO PAR!" she said, roaring the last part so that the whole congregation could hear. "Did you have something in mind?" she added.

"N-no…" Yoruichi said, trying to veil her disappointment with only mixed success.

"Do you want to help out here?" Soi Fon offered, catching something.

"With zanpakuto?" Yoruichi asked. "No thanks."

"Very well," Soi Fon said, and she returned to her work.

Yoruichi left, beginning to mull her disappointment. Again the possibility that Soi Fon simply was not going to do anything special, that she was content with the gains she had made so far, emerged at the forefront of her thoughts. Now, at least, it bore some stronger consideration.

Yoruichi decided that she didn't want to think about it. Not because she was in denial, but because she knew that over-thinking this sort of thing would lead her back into the same trap that she had fallen into before, and jeopardize her relationship with her Little Bee. But if she wasn't going to think about it, she needed something to do. She quickly developed an idea, something else that she had enjoyed back in the old days aside from teasing Soi Fon, teasing of another sort…

~~0000~~

"And what exactly are you doing here?"

"I just stopped by for a little visit, Bya-kun."

"I would beg you not to call me that."

"And where will begging get you, Bya-kun?"

"Hmm," Byakuya Kuchiki grunted. "You need some sort of hobby aside from tormenting me." Byakuya was seated on the back porch of his headquarters on the Squad Six barracks, a fresh pot of tea to one side, with a cup of the green tea in his hands as he sat regally on his porch.

"I have plenty," Yoruichi said, smiling. "But that doesn't make this any less fun."

"I have noticed you in the Soul Society a lot of late," Byakuya said. "Tea?" he offered, his duties as a host extending even to this bothersome trespasser. Yoruichi nodded, and he poured a cup. "Not that I particularly care about why you're here," he continued, "but does it have something to do with Captain Soi Fon's peculiar outburst at the last Captain's Meeting?"

"Soi Fon had an outburst?" Yoruichi asked.

"Yes, normally she is quite good at concealing her emotions, which made me mark the event as a peculiarity."

"What was she mad about?" Yoruichi asked, suddenly concerned.

"She reacted poorly to the proposal to restore some of the Visoreds to their Captaincies," Byakuya said. "But from the content of her outburst, I imagine that was not what she was angry about."

Yoruichi frowned, her guilt resurfacing. She smiled again, however, knowing that that was all in the past. "Hey, Bya-kun, can you keep a secret?"

"I doubt I'll care about your "secret," Byakuya sighed, taking a sip of tea. "So proceed."

"I'm here waiting for Soi Fon to tell me she loves me," Yoruichi said.

She had not expected a reaction, and she did not get one, though Byakuya at least replied. "That is supposed to be a secret?"

"Just how obvious has this been?" Yoruichi asked incredulously.

"Obvious enough, but why are you waiting for Captain Soi Fon over here in _my_ headquarters?"

"She knows I love her," Yoruichi began. "And I'm certain she loves me, but I wanted a real confession. Something with some real emotional content," she said. "But today's the last day for Soi Fon to do it, and she hasn't made any sign that she's trying."

"And you are taking that lack of a sign at face value?" Byakuya said. He seemed to be suppressing a smile, and it almost, almost, sounded like he wanted to chuckle. "Awfully naïve for the Goddess of Flash."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Yoruichi returned.

"As I said, Soi Fon is usually quite good at concealing her emotions."

"Duh," Yoruichi said.

"So why would you think she's not plotting anything behind that perpetual mask of hers?"

"Good point," Yoruichi said, taking a swig of tea. "You're a real expert on love, Bya-kun," she said, slapping his back.

"I am nothing of the sort," Byakuya said, but he said it to no-one, as Yoruichi had already shunpoed off.

~~0000~~

Despite the reassurance from Byakuya, Yoruichi remained somewhat worried. She was presented with good cause to worry when she returned to Squad Two. By now it was mid-afternoon, but Soi's quarters were empty. Another note was to be found upon Soi Fon's desk, however.

_Yoruichi-sama,  
>Pressing concern. Not a huge problem, don't worry.<em>

_Be back by 2200 hrs._

_-Soi Fon_

2200 hours. 10:00 at night on the last day. It really bothered Yoruichi, despite Byakuya's reassurances, despite the assurances of her own heart which she knew to be true, the fact that her Little Bee would never give up, it was a bad sign. It also posed Yoruichi with an additional problem of what to do with her time, but in her growing anxiety, she knew of only one way to clear the next six hours or so.

~~0000~~

The black cat slept, curled up neatly on the desk of the Captain of Squad Two. It was curled into a rather compact form, so as not to disturb any of the contents of the desk out of respect for the person who worked there. It was only slightly submerged below the barrier of consciousness, the quintessential cat-nap, and it did not take much to raise the cat back up to awareness. The cat's nose twitched, catching a compelling odor, one that made its mouth water (though that was not a physiological response in felines):

Fish.

Rainbow trout, to be specific, if the cat's nose were any judge of the scent of frying fish. The scent was not close, but not too far away either. The cat's eyes snapped open, and then in a puff of smoke Yoruichi emerged. With some good foresight, she had thought to take her clothes off before transforming this time, so that she was readily equipped to dress herself once again before emerging from Soi Fon's quarters. For the source of the scent was not there. She stepped outside, across to the guest quarters for Squad Two, currently set aside for her. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she stepped through the darkness that now hung across Seireitei.

She stepped into the guest quarters, the smell now quite potent even to her lesser human nose. Out from the anteroom she stepped towards the kitchen/dining area the quarters were apportioned with. She slid open the shoji and stopped dead in her tracks.

There, working by candle-light and the blue flame from the natural gas range was her Little Bee, dutifully tending a wok filled with rainbow trout and just a bit of soy sauce. It was from the wok that the scent came, pungent and glorious, now quite literally setting Yoruichi's mouth watering. But the sight and the smell inspired more in Yoruichi than mere hunger and the promise of a good meal.

"A bit late for dinner, isn't it?" Yoruichi asked, keeping it cool in spite of what was promised.

"For me, perhaps," Soi Fon replied, "I actually have to get up in the morning. Please, sit down," she offered. Two cushions had been laid on opposite ends of a low table adorned with another candle. Steaming rice bowls sat on either side. "I'll be done shortly," Soi Fon added.

"You can cook?" Yoruichi asked. That was a skill she was unaware of.

"I picked it up soon after I became a Captain," Soi Fon replied. "It's much more convenient than having to wait for the division's cooks. I wanted to set my own, more efficient schedule."

"Of course," Yoruichi said, laughing gently. "But how come I've never seen this?"

"I figured it would be… special," Soi Fon said, something odd in her eyes as she glanced straight at Yoruichi's golden orbs, it seemed almost sneaky, like a child that has a secret they are aching to reveal.

And then it all fell together in Yoruichi's mind. Special. This little display, this small, home-cooked meal by candlelight was Soi Fon's special gesture to her, what she had asked for. Without having to ask, Yoruichi thought that she could take a stab at the logic behind Soi Fon's decision. What could her Little Bee show her, what could she give her, that was really special? Yoruichi was a woman from the highest of stations, born and raised in the lap of the most opulent luxury, a woman faster than any other, who had seen all the sights that could be offered by the Soul Society or the World of the Living, a woman who had, for the sake of justice, freely given up more material goods than most people would ever attain. There was nothing Soi Fon could give her; nothing aside from she herself: her love, her companionship, her skills, her service. Furthermore, Yoruichi saw the brilliance of Soi Fon's conduct. She hadn't been teasing her all week, she had been showing her how enjoyable a normal life with the Captain of Squad Two could be. Yoruichi had fallen for her plan spectacularly.

Yoruichi could have cried, or smiled. She settled on the latter, and a warm smile that spread across her features began to form. Soi Fon finished the trout, placing portions upon both of their plates, and the charming smell wafted up from their plates and into Yoruichi's nose. Then Soi Fon brought out the final touch; two glasses of cool, creamy milk.

"Itadakimasu," both women said, and then began eating. The meal proceeded normally, though Yoruichi had a grin consistently plastered on her face. In between bites of the trout, helpings of rice, and sips of milk (all of which were delicious), they made light conversation, about what Yoruichi had done that day, or Soi Fon's progress in training her squad. They finished the meal, and Soi Fon collected Yoruichi's plate, then turned back towards the kitchen sink.

"Hey, Yoruichi-sama," Soi Fon said, turning her head back towards her.

"Yeah?" Yoruichi asked.

In a flash Soi Fon was kneeling there next to her, with her arms around her, moving fast enough even to surprise the Goddess of Flash. "I love you," she said.

"Now that's how you do it," Yoruichi said, smiling broadly. "Good job, Little Bee."

And they kissed right there in the candle-lit room, tongues intertwining as they took in the taste of each other.

"Pwah!" Yoruichi exclaimed, disengaging from the kiss. "Fishy breath."

"I love it," Soi Fon said shortly.

"Me too," Yoruichi replied, and they resumed kissing.

They fell down to the tatami-mat floor, kissing each other deeply and squirming in their mutual embrace. They made out slowly, passionately, but both women seemed to have an understanding that it was not to proceed any further than this, at least not on this night. They would have always and forever to explore one another's bodies, but tonight was about something more pure. It was merely about being together, right then and there.

Neither woman knew how long they spent just kissing, but eventually they stopped and simply began cuddling, facing one another quietly as they lay on the floor. Soi Fon rolled over to get comfortable, now facing away from her Yoruichi-sama as the other woman's arms lay draped around her.

Soi Fon lay there and allowed her mind to wander. She had done it: day 28 was over and her Yoruichi-sama was now just that: hers and hers alone. All was not over, however, for having Yoruichi as her girlfriend now presented many problems. She thought of what would happen as their relationship inevitable became publicly known; of how her squad would react. The Captain Commander, Central 46, and the Shihoin Clan all might have big problems with this. She thought that her own family might protest as well, or they might be overjoyed that their family was being more solidly bonded to the Shihoin Clan than they ever could have hoped. Then there were more mundane issues; when it came time to inevitably start cohabitating, who would move in with who? Could Yoruichi really live here with her? And when, when would they go further than they had gone on this night? When would she take Yoruichi's body, when would they have sex? Some of these problems they would have to address very soon, while others lay further down the line, but Soi Fon knew she could overcome them. She could overcome any problem that might confront her at this point, because she would face it with the woman who lay beside her.

She felt the measured, gentle breathing on the back of her neck that indicated Yoruichi had likely gone to sleep and, blissfully happy, she closed her eyes as well

~~0000~~

Dawn broke over Karakura Town, but another light competed with it. Out of that point of light, floating over one of the city streets, Kisuke Urahara fell, hitting the street hard. It was well before his normal wake-up time, and so he lay there on the street like a dead man.

_Unit 23, please respond._

_23 here._

_We have reports of somebody dressed up in Edo-era clothes passed out on Minami-cho. Please apprehend._

_Roger that. Another one for the drunk tank._

It seemed that Kisuke Urahara would be detained a bit longer than anyone had planned.

The End.

**Author's Note:** _Hmm, this chapter seemed a little weaker than some of the others, probably because the big emotional climax was at the end of the previous one and the very beginning of this one, but I still think I pulled it together well enough. No lemon in this one, though I may upload a lemony YoruSoi fic I uploaded elsewhere._

_More extensive critiques will be appreciated at this juncture, so click that review button and fire it up!_


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